Manitoba will start moving people from encampments into housing in 2025: Kinew

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Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says his government will start moving people out of homeless encampments and into housing in the new year, while sticking to its timeline for a balanced budget — despite a projected deficit for this year that's grown by half a billion dollars.

Kinew said in a year-end interview that 2025 will be when "you, as the average Manitoban, start to see big steps on homelessness."

Within the first few months of the year, the province will move people living in tents into new housing units the government is opening up, he said.

"I think what we're going to do is move camp-by-camp," he said.

"It's actually going to start at that level … of, like, a few dozen people at a time. Let's move them into housing, let's make sure that the camp gets cleaned up, and then let's make sure that it doesn't get set up again, because people have been successful in their new housing.'"