Reported drop in city’s homeless disputed

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Brandon reportedly decreased in 2026, but local outreach organizations say the statistics don’t match the demand.

The 2025-26 Community Homelessness Report — published by the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation (BNRC) earlier this month — illustrates a decline in unhoused individuals in four of five reported categories.

During that period, which ended in March, the overall number of people who experienced homelessness for at least one day dropped by 157 people, from 916 in 2024-25 to 759, according to the report.

Indigenous people experiencing homelessness declined from 638 people to 512 — only seven above the target of 505 individuals.

Newly identified individuals decreased from 377 to 290 people, and the number of people who returned to homelessness dropped from 277 to 188.

The only category that saw an increase was chronic homelessness, which climbed from 197 in 2024-25 to 215.

Cyndi Price, a longtime volunteer with Brandon Bear Clan, said she’s unsurprised by the reported statistics.

“Unfortunately, the numbers in that report say one thing, but our statistics are different,” Price said.

The Indigenous-led Brandon Bear Clan hosts two weekly, hour-long, patrols on Thursday and Friday evenings. The non-profit aims to make the community safer through crime prevention and by offering support to vulnerable citizens.

“Statistics might say that things have gone down, but we see people on regular patrol twice a week … We don’t see that (decrease),” Price said in response to the annual report.

“I’m not going to say they’re wrong. I’m just going to say our statistics of context, that we make weekly, are different than what is being published,” she said.

“The numbers that we see on Thursday and Friday nights continue to be elevated (and) continue to be a challenge,” Price said.

Data in the report are pulled from the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System, or HIFIS.

It’s a software tool development by the federal government to track and monitor client information and community coordination with data inputted by 12 agencies in Brandon.

Rebecca Anhalt, HIFIS manager at the BNRC and co-author of the report, says it’s difficult to say if homelessness is decreasing because it’s always changing.

“So, it does seem like homelessness, according to the data, peaked in 2024 and there was less homelessness in 2025,” Anhalt said.

“My hope is that the trend continues to go down, but we don’t know that for sure,” she said.

“Depending on what’s happening in Manitoba, things can change very quickly … Things that are happening across the province can affect some of our data,” Anhalt said.

She added that higher numbers could also mean more people have been identified, not necessarily more homelessness.

“(It) doesn’t always mean that they weren’t always there and they weren’t always needing resources. It just means that they weren’t always in our system,” she said.

Anhalt said that in the last five months since the reporting period closed, the number of homeless individuals could have increased.

“What we’ve noticed recently is that there has been a bit of an uptick in people in Brandon experiencing unsheltered homelessness,” Anhalt said.

Heather Symbalisty, Samaritan House Ministries executive director, says that while numbers fluctuate, she has yet to see a decrease in demand.

“There are a number of individuals that are accessing services that we hadn’t quite seen before,” Symbalisty said. “It’s definitely on the rise.”

The report acknowledged limitations in the number of newly identified people, saying: “This past fiscal year did not (include) the overnight warming space (included in previous years) and did not include growing encampment data.”

Samaritan House offers a food bank and an overnight Safe and Warm Shelter with a 41-bed capacity. Symbalisty says both programs have seen an increased demand, specifically in individuals 50 and older.

“We’re seeing an increase in our senior population accessing the Safe and Warm, so that is one area that we’re a bit concerned about,” she said.

She added that a big struggle in the homeless community is access to meals.

“One area that we have a gap in Brandon is providing a meal in the evenings, especially on the weekends. So, they’ll come to Safe and Warm looking for something to eat,” Symbalisty said.

The report says outreach capacity in the city needs to be expanded, “particularly into encampments, intake options (including after-hours access), and continued prioritization of people sleeping rough.”

In November, the BNRC, along with volunteers and other outreach programs, will conduct a Point in Time Count, meant to give a snapshot of the homelessness situation during a 24-hour period.

The 2026-27 CHR will be completed by next spring. The annual reports are mandated for communities that receive federal funding under the Reaching Home strategy.

» rgerrard@brandonsun.com