An advocate says the federal government’s estimate of 65,000 Canadians experiencing homelessness in a single day may understate how many people face homelessness over the course of a year.
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Advocates are welcoming the federal government’s plan to end homelessness within 10 years, while one activist says the scope of the crisis may be larger than Ottawa’s estimate suggests.
This week’s federal budget estimated that about 65,000 Canadians are homeless, but Tim Richter of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness said the figure does not capture the number of different people who experience homelessness over time. "That 65,000 number is one day, one night, but that doesn't tell you the number of different people who will experience homelessness in the year, which is exponentially bigger," Richter said.
Richter said the housing crisis began in the 1990s, when the federal government stopped funding social housing, and that the situation has worsened since 2018 due to higher rents and a higher cost of living, alongside a toxic drug crisis.
He also pointed to increases in the homeless population during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nick Falvo, editor of the International Journal on Homelessness, said homelessness impacts are increasingly visible in communities, citing voter concern about poverty and the effects of an overdose crisis. "I think voters are getting increasingly concerned about visible manifestations of poverty in the streets. I think voters are seeing the results of an overdose crisis," Falvo said.
The federal government says it intends to "create the conditions to end homelessness" by setting up a new fund to support projects addressing health, addictions and social supports.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne called the plan one of the government’s "flagship" policies, and the government has pledged $11.2 billion over the next four years to address homelessness, including funding for transitional and permanent housing and integrated social supports for mental health and addiction.
The government also plans to put billions of dollars into the Canada Housing Benefit over the next decade to help low-income Canadians cover rent.
Richter said he hopes the 10-year federal plan will rally provinces and cities to tackle what the government has called “one of Canada’s most urgent social challenges.”
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