Recently, the headlines were clear: Winnipeg has reached a record number of people experiencing homelessness. The number 2,469 was splashed across news outlets as if it were definitive. But buried in the first paragraph of the report’s executive summary is an admission that should have stopped everyone cold: “This number should not be treated as a precise statistic or be directly compared to previous point-in-time counts. It is an estimate… There were substantial changes in how the 2024 Point-in-Time Count was done compared to previous counts.”

In other words, even the organization producing the number admits it is not reliable, not comparable, and not definitive. Yet government, advocates, and media treat it as fact. The report is riddled with caveats. “The number… is just an estimate –

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