The City of Thompson will carry out its next homelessness count on October 14 and 15, 2026. The Point-in-Time Count is part of a national effort to track and understand homelessness in communities across the country, and it helps decide how to use federal money for local solutions.
The count is paid for through the Reaching Home program, a federal homelessness strategy. Staff from local agencies and trained volunteers will go out and ask people where they stayed on the night of October 14. They record whether someone was in a shelter, transitional housing, or sleeping outside. Workers also collect information on health, living situations, and other needs.
Thompson last did the count in 2024 and found at least 215 people without stable housing. Almost all of the people counted, 95 percent, identified as Indigenous. Three out of four people were chronically homeless, meaning they had been without a home for six months or more over the past year. Across Canada, the numbers have gone up a lot since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2025, the national count found about 65,000 people were homeless on a single night. The western and northern parts of Canada, including Manitoba, had the highest rates of homelessness, at 28 people for every 10,000 residents.
Since 2019, the City of Thompson has been the community lead for Reaching Home money in the area. It has been given more than $1.7 million for local projects between 2019 and 2024. The city uses a model called the Thompson Model of Lived-Experience Governance, which puts people who have been homeless themselves at the centre of funding decisions. That helps make sure the money goes where it is most needed.
In 2024, the average age of someone counted was 40, and ages ranged from 19 to 83. The results of the October 2026 count will be used to produce local reports and guide future spending. Residents who want to help with the count can contact Lana Bayer at [email protected].
