New rules could reshape where Winnipeg's homeless encampments are

Winnipeg is about to put new limits on where people who are homeless can sleep outdoors —restrictions that could change the face of encampments across the city.

As of Nov. 17, people will no longer be allowed to set up tents within 50 metres of playgrounds, splash pads, pools or daycares, or within 30 metres of transit stops, bridges and docks. 

The city's rules come as the number of homeless people and encampments in Winnipeg has increased dramatically in recent years, with a point-in-time street census last year estimating about 2,500 people were experiencing homelessness in the city — the highest number since the surveys began in 2015.

That number includes people who were in homeless shelters, living in public spaces like a bus shelter or encampment, and those who were "provisionally accommodated," which can include people couch-surfing or living in hotels or motels.

Using data from the provincial homelessness strategy, the city estimates that as of August this year, there were about 100 encampments across Winnipeg, with as many as 700 people.

To show what the city’s new restrictions could mean for those encampments, CBC Manitoba mapped the buffer zones using the criteria council approved. 

Much of the core area, including long stretches of riverbank and green space where tents are common, falls inside those no-go areas.

At an encampment tucked behind the Granite Curling Club in Mostyn Park, tents sit among the trees near the Assiniboine River. 

The area, in the West Broadway neighbourhood and just a few hundred metres west of the Manitoba Legislature, is near a daycare and the curling club itself — locations that could be off-limits under the new rules, depending on how the city measures distance.

Exactly how those buffers will be measured is one of several details still being worked out.

That uncertainty hangs over Janine Desjarlais, who has lived there since early summer.

"I’m not moving. What for?" she said. 

"I’m not doing nothing to no one. I don’t know what the problem is. It’s not like they’re out here every day, all day long."

Desjarlais says she’s been trying to get into housing, but rarely hears back when she tries. If she’s forced to leave, she expects she’ll simply move farther down the riverbank.