ManitobaThe City of Winnipeg says its focus is on offering housing and supports before clearing any homeless encampment sites under its new restrictions, but one outreach organization says people are showing up at its door seeking help.’Police are bringing them to us, and people are coming on their own to us’: Street Links founderCameron MacLean · CBC News · Posted: Nov 28, 2025 7:32 PM EST | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Bulldozers were seen clearing debris at an encampment in Mostyn Park near the Granite Curling Club on Thursday. (Travis Golby/CBC)Winnipeg’s new restrictions on homeless encampments have been in place for more than a week, and while the city says its focus is on offering housing and supports before clearing any sites, one outreach organization says people are showing up at its door seeking help.St. Boniface Street Links founder Marion Willis says her organization, which does not receive city funding for outreach, has housed 11 people in the past week, all of them former encampment residents.”Police are bringing them to us, and people are coming on their own to us. And so it is St. Boniface Street Links that is largely intervening here to link people to income supports and housing,” said Willis.People have come from several locations, including Mostyn Park near the Granite Curling Club, as well as camps near the Louise Bridge and Mayfair Avenue, she said.Since the new encampment restrictions that came into effect Nov. 17, “shelter and supports have been offered to every individual within each site we have remediated,” according to the city.It says it has “not remediated any sites where people were still living.”On Thursday, CBC News filmed city crews and heavy equipment at the Mostyn Park encampment pushing tents and debris into piles, prompting questions about whether people there were being forced to move as part of the city’s encampment restrictions.But the City of Winnipeg says the work at Mostyn Park was not part of its enforcement actions. In an email Friday, city spokesperson Julie Dooley said crews were only cleaning up a fire-damaged area taped off earlier in the week.”Our work did not extend beyond this area into where any people are living,” she said.”We were not displacing anyone currently living in the space, nor enforcing any sort of policy action.”Dooley said Mostyn Park is on the city’s priority list for eventual remediation, but Thursday’s work was unrelated. She said the city has “not yet prioritized work” at either the Louise Bridge or Mayfair Avenue encampments, and has “not relocated individuals from these locations.”The Winnipeg Police Service says officers transported people from near the Louise Bridge and Mayfair only after being approached by individuals seeking help.”This was in response to individual requests for assistance, not as part of the city encampment protocol,” Central District commander Insp. Helen Peters said in a statement. “Police reached out to Street Links and provided them a safe ride.”Main Street Project, one of the city’s primary outreach providers, says the situation remains difficult and capacity is strained.“Unfortunately, there is not the ability or time to support everyone who needs supports,” said Jamil Mahmood, the organization’s executive director.When housing is unavailable, “people are moving to another alternative encampment and are potentially being put at more risk with winter coming,” he said.Willis argues the city’s approach lacks planning and is already pushing people into crisis.”People are coming to us because no one else is helping them,” she said, adding her team is furnishing apartments, providing food hampers and cleaning abandoned camp sites without dedicated funding.WATCH | Encampment residents looking for help, Street Links says:Displaced encampment residents reaching out for help: advocateOne week after the City of Winnipeg’s restrictions on encampments came into effect, the founder of St. Boniface Street Links says people are turning to her organization for help. ABOUT THE AUTHORCameron MacLean is a journalist for CBC Manitoba living in Winnipeg, where he was born and raised. He has more than a decade of experience reporting in the city and across Manitoba, covering a wide range of topics, including courts, politics, housing, arts, health and breaking news. Email story tips to cameron.maclean@cbc.ca.
Former camp residents showing up at Winnipeg outreach organizations door, advocate says
