Changes coming for Winnipeg homeless census after number of volunteers plummets

Changes to the tally of Winnipeg's homeless population are coming this year, after organizers say a drop in volunteers from pre-pandemic levels likely skewed the most recent results.

The Winnipeg street census, conducted roughly every two years, draws data from local shelters and organizations, as well as an in-person survey conducted on the streets, in order to provide a snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city.

Detailed plans for this year's street census have yet to be announced, but End Homelessness Winnipeg's Elijah Osei-Yeboah says it will shift away from relying on volunteers to conduct the survey.

The 2015 survey identified over 1,500 people experiencing homelessness, while the 2022 survey counted around 1,250 — but it also had far fewer volunteers.

About 300 trained volunteers helped conduct the first two street censuses in 2015 and 2018, but following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, that number dropped to 160 volunteers in 2022.

"There is a chance that it might have affected the number of people that we were able to reach," said Osei-Yeboah, who is End Homelessness Winnipeg's manager for evaluation and shared measurement.

He says it's an issue that goes beyond Winnipeg, with homeless census organizations across Canada planning to decrease their dependence on volunteers this year amid drops in participation.

Undercounting the number of people without stable housing in a given area leads to an incomplete picture of the homeless population, said Cheryl Forchuk, a professor at the University of Western Ontario and lead researcher of Homelessness Counts.

"If you don't know who's homeless, then you don't know what the appropriate strategies are" to help them, she said.

"There's many different subpopulations that really need different strategies in order to help them," said Forchuk, including veterans, sex workers, and people suffering from dementia or learning disabilities.

The census is also important for many agencies that rely on the findings for their funding proposals, said Osei-Yeboah.

This year, End Homelessness Winnipeg will recruit about 100 volunteers for the street census, but will also partner with community outreach teams, since they require less training and are more familiar with where to find people who are homeless, he said.

The federal government is also giving organizations across the country more time to conduct the counts, he said. In the past, counts were conducted over a 24-hour period.

That may increase to as much as 30 days, said Osei-Yeboah, but the Winnipeg street census is likely to be completed in about four days, because a longer period means a higher risk of surveying the same people twice. Unique identifiers will be given to each participant to limit repeat takers.