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WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government said Monday it remains focused on its promise to eliminate chronic homelessness, even as new numbers suggested the problem in Winnipeg is growing.
A report from End Homelessness Winnipeg, a non-profit umbrella organization that works with dozens of front-line groups, said there were just over 4,400 people who were considered chronically homeless in March — an increase of 104 from the previous month.
People are finding housing, the report said, but at a slower rate than the number of people becoming newly unhoused.
“It’s really clear we need to do more. We need to get ahead of this, and right now we are running behind,” Jennifer Moore Rattray, the non-profit’s chief executive officer, said.
The NDP government, elected in 2023, campaigned on a promise to end chronic homelessness within eight years.
Bernadette Smith, the minister of housing, addictions and homelessness, said the government has opened new social-housing units, and more than 700 social-housing and affordable units are under construction.
More than 200 people have been moved out of encampments, she added.
“We’ve taken boards off of over 2,100 Manitoba Housing units,” Smith said.
End Homelessness Winnipeg said the data changes over a one-year period are even more stark — 2,550 more people experiencing homelessness, and 1,300 people newly considered chronically homeless.
Chronic homelessness refers to having been homeless for at least 180 days over a one-year period, or 18 months over a three-year period.
The numbers are drawn from a real-time data set used by shelters and other service agencies across Winnipeg that provide supports.
Rattray cited a number of factors for the growing numbers. Governments over many years have not spent enough in affordable housing, she said. There are also increasing problems with addiction.
“I think we’re looking at significant mental health and wellness challenges. I think we’re looking at increasingly addictive drugs. I think we’re looking at intergenerational trauma,” she said.
Smith blamed much of the problem on the previous Progressive Conservative government, which she said did not build social housing units.
The Progressive Conservatives, now in Opposition, said the NDP should be more focused on opening up new addiction treatment spots instead of funding a planned supervised consumption site, slated to open later this year in Winnipeg.
“The NDP answer to addictions is to provide a space for (people) to consume more drugs, at five times what they’re investing in recovery,” Tory Leader Obby Khan said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 13, 2026
Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press
