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Mike Deal \/ Free Press Files<\/p>\n
The City of Winnipeg said Friday it will continue to fund Main Street Project\u2019s mobile van, that helps the city\u2019s homeless population.<\/p>\n
\u201cMSP is grateful for the City of Winnipeg\u2019s continued support and trust in our outreach team\u2019s vital role in the community,\u201d MSP\u2019s executive director Jamil Mahmood said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis funding allows us to remain present where we\u2019re most needed, meeting people where they\u2019re at, making connections, building trust, and opening the door to life-safety, stability, and housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the funding amount is $387,275.<\/p>\n
The renewed funding is tied to the requirement that MSP comply with the city\u2019s encampment policy, which was rolled out in November. It prohibits encampments in many public spaces and restricts them from being set up near schools, daycares, recreation centres, and other facilities.<\/p>\n
MSP must provide data reports on its services, including quarterly point-in-time counts.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrequent reporting and point-in-time counts help our planning efforts and support our work with the province on the Your Way Home strategy,\u201d the city said in a release.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs our mobile outreach service provider, Main Street Project is able to provide front-line insight on homelessness in Winnipeg at any given time. Regular communication also helps us carry out our encampment protocol more efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July 2025, the city cut funding to St. Boniface Street Links and Resource Assistance for Youth, which also had outreach vans, and awarded the contract exclusively to MSP. That contract was worth $275,000 from July 1 to Dec. 31, with the possibility for extensions for the next two years. In total $550,000 is available for each year.<\/p>\n
In January, when the city was looking for providers, its budget set aside $387,275 for the 24-hour mobile outreach contract, which could be split to offer $96,820 for outreach east of the Red River and $290,455 for outreach west of the river.<\/p>\n
The contract will run from April 1 until the end of the year.<\/p>\n
When the request for proposals was issued by the city, outreach providers balked at what they called inadequate funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe total amount of the funding is not enough to fund one outreach team 24-7. This means whoever gets the contract will be required to have other funding in place to meet what the city is requesting,\u201d Cindy Titus of MSP told the Free Press in January.<\/p>\n
Titus said the initial amount provided in 2025 had to be topped up with other funding to get the job done.<\/p>\n
She said a $900,000 to $1-million budget would make sense for the current contract.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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On Friday, St. Boniface Street Links head Marion Willis said they applied for the contract but were turned down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m left speechless,\u201d she said, saying that the money earmarked for east of the Red was woefully inadequate. \u201cIt was totally unrealistic. Our outreach budget is slightly more than half a million dollars. How would we operate on $96,000?\u201d<\/p>\n
A letter from the city to Street Links said that MSP\u2019s proposal was deemed \u201cthe most advantageous to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the city doesn\u2019t think it matters because we\u2019re just going to do it anyway,\u201d Willis said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to be in for a bit of a shocker this year, because we\u2019re not going to.\u201d<\/p>\n
scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Scott Billeck Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade\u2019s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.\u00a0 Read more about Scott<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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