City extends Main Street Project mobile-outreach contract

The City of Winnipeg is renewing funding for the only 24/7 mobile outreach provider that helps the homeless population.

The city said Friday it will continue to fund Main Street Project’s mobile van, but didn’t reveal the cost; it has provided support since 2021.

The van will operate in all parts of the city. Staff check on people’s well-being, drive people to housing and emergency shelters, and hand out warm clothing, blankets and water.

“MSP is grateful for the City of Winnipeg’s continued support and trust in our outreach team’s vital role in the community,” MSP’s executive director Jamil Mahmood said in a statement.

“This funding allows us to remain present where we’re most needed, meeting people where they’re at, making connections, building trust, and opening the door to life-safety, stability, and housing.”

He added that the funding amount is $387,275.

The renewed funding is tied to the requirement that MSP comply with the city’s 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.

MSP must provide data reports on its services, including quarterly point-in-time counts.

“Frequent reporting and point-in-time counts help our planning efforts and support our work with the province on the Your Way Home strategy,” the city said in a release.

“As 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.”

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.

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.

The contract will run from April 1 until the end of the year.

When the request for proposals was issued by the city, outreach providers balked at what they called inadequate funding.

“The 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,” Cindy Titus of MSP told the Free Press in January.

Titus said the initial amount provided in 2025 had to be topped up with other funding to get the job done.

She said a $900,000 to $1-million budget would make sense for the current contract.

On Friday, St. Boniface Street Links head Marion Willis said they applied for the contract but were turned down.

“I’m left speechless,” she said, saying that the money earmarked for east of the Red was woefully inadequate. “It was totally unrealistic. Our outreach budget is slightly more than half a million dollars. How would we operate on $96,000?”

A letter from the city to Street Links said that MSP’s proposal was deemed “the most advantageous to the city.”

“I think the city doesn’t think it matters because we’re just going to do it anyway,” Willis said. “They’re going to be in for a bit of a shocker this year, because we’re not going to.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca