Are homeless encampments legal in public spaces? – CBC

Sep 12, 2024

CBC Manitoba looks at legal judgments and government policies that address the issue

Theresa Bauer lives in an encampment, in a tiny tent under a bridge along the Assiniboine River.

“It’s kind of shitty,” she said, yawning after being harassed the night before in the camp. “I’d like my own place.”

As a growing number of homeless encampments pop up in public spaces in Winnipeg and across Canada, governments and courts are setting ground rules on balancing the rights and needs of unhoused people with neighbours living around them.

End Homelessness Winnipeg’s latest street census in 2022 found roughly 1,300 people are living in the city without homes, but the group’s more recent estimates are as high as 4,000.