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A Right To Home
Youth exiting care should be entering adulthood with stability, support, and a safe place to call home, not into homelessness. Yet in Winnipeg, many aging out of Child and Family Services (CFS), particularly Indigenous youth, are overrepresented in the homeless population. According to the 2024 Winnipeg Street Census, 52.0% of people experiencing homelessness had a history in care, and 22.1% were under 30.
Through the A Right to Home initiative, End Homelessness Winnipeg is leading a collaborative, rights-based inquiry into how youth can be better supported to thrive in and out of care. With a trauma-informed, anti-oppressive lens, this project centers the voices of youth with lived experience and identifies what's missing in current supports.
Project Partners: Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC), Community Education Development Association (CEDA), Knowles Centre, Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY), Manitoba Inuit Association, Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), New Directions, Southern Chiefs' Organization (SCO), RaY - Resource Assistance for Youth, Rossbrook House, Shawenim Abinoojii, The Link Youth and Family Supports, and Voices: Manitoba Youth In Care Network.
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Duty to Assist: A Rights-Based Approach to Preventing Youth Homelessness
End Homelessness Winnipeg is championing the implementation of a Duty to Assist framework, a legally enforceable, rights-based approach that mandates local authorities to take proactive steps to prevent youth homelessness. Inspired by successful legislation in Wales, this model requires timely, coordinated interventions that prioritize stable housing and wraparound supports over emergency responses.
In October 2024, End Homelessness Winnipeg convened a three-day gathering that brought together Indigenous youth leaders, service providers, and government representatives to explore how Duty to Assist could be adapted locally. The event emphasized culturally grounded, youth-led solutions and the importance of collaboration across sectors to uphold the right to housing.
Winnipeg can move from reactive crisis management to a preventive, justice-informed system by embedding Duty to Assist into policy and practice that ensures no young person is left without a home.
