Half of the homeless in Winnipeg are former wards of Child and Family Services

Here is an article about a census done on the homeless of Winnipeg. Half of the people interviewed were wards of Child and Family Services. Nearly 1500 homeless were identified but these would be those that were open about their situation or use services. I wonder how many were parents that had their kids taken from them. I wonder how many wrongfully so...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-homeless-census-1.4702113

The article is about a census done on Winnipeg's homeless. Close to 1500 people were interviewed and half of those interviewed were former wards of Child and Family Services. 300 people went to 69 different locations including homeless shelters, transitional housing complexes, agencies and walked the streets of Winnipeg searching for the homeless.

The article is quoted as "Results of the second Winnipeg Street Census are being described as discouraging as the number of people without a place to stay appears to have increased since the last tally.

Hundreds of volunteers fanned out across the city over a 24-hour period in April in an effort to get a clearer picture of Winnipeg's homeless population.

On April 17 and 18, nearly 300 volunteers encountered close to 1,500 people experiencing homelessness, collecting detailed information on their housing situations, personal characteristics and backgrounds. That represents a rise compared to the previous census in 2015, when volunteers encountered at least 1,400 people experiencing homelessness.

"Disheartening really, when you think about a country as wealthy as Canada one person in homelessness is too many, and here in Winnipeg we have 1,500 people at least," said Josh Brandon, author of the report.

Rather than attempting to give an estimate of the total number of homeless people in Winnipeg, the survey gives researchers and decision-makers an idea of who is experiencing homelessness, why, and what barriers they face trying to get out of it.

"[It] is virtually impossible to get an exact count of the homeless population. Invisibility is a survival strategy for people experiencing homelessness," a preliminary census report said.

Volunteers spoke to people in 69 different locations around the city, including shelters, transitional housing sites, bottle depots and community agencies. They also walked along nearly 220 kilometres of city streets, mostly in the inner city.

The majority of people included in the survey are male (65.1 per cent) and Indigenous (61.2 per cent).

Half of those surveyed had spent time in Child and Family Services care."

I actually met some of these people I think. One night 4 people were going around interviewing the homeless. I remember telling them about how boys in Winnipeg were being sexually exploited downtown for years. I one of them that terrible acts had been commited against those boys and spoke of the guy that told me how he had an electrical collar put on his neck for an hour. The lady looked horrified.