The City of Barrie says all known homeless encampments have been cleared, even as the overall number of people experiencing homelessness has edged up slightly.
During an executive committee meeting Feb. 25, Jeff Schmidt, the city’s general manager of community and corporate services, told council there are no active encampments in Barrie.
“The City of Barrie continues to make progress while under the emergency order in addressing encampments throughout the city,” he said.
“Currently, we have no known encampments on city-owned properties. Our encampment response team continues to monitor multiple locations in which recent activity has been reported but no physical encampments are there.”
Schmidt credited a coordinated effort between the city, the County of Simcoe and Barrie Police Service.
“Through these joint efforts, the city has successfully addressed 99 sites on city-owned and private property,” he said.
In mid-January, county data showed the number of encampments tracked on city-owned property had fallen from 35 to two, with approximately five individuals still residing at those sites.
Schmidt said 643 individuals are currently reported as experiencing homelessness, up from 641 in January.
He also told council the Barrie Campus of Care — a temporary 40-unit modular facility for people experiencing homelessness — is expected to be operational soon. Warming spaces throughout the city and region have been operating beyond capacity in recent weeks.
Mayor Alex Nuttall thanked Schmidt and all involved parties for their work and referenced a recent trip to Alberta, where he met with municipal and provincial officials to discuss that province’s approach to homelessness.
“The disbelief that we have managed to get to the point where we’ve gotten with encampments was vocalized when we went to Alberta,” he said.
“I think there was a lot of good communication going on that front and there’s probably going to need to be some plugging in of our folks with their folks to discuss how we’ve managed to achieve that.”
The city declared a state of emergency on Sept. 9, 2025 to reduce the number of encampments.
