Homelessness numbers trending upward in Ottawa

The City of Ottawa has conducted a count of who in the city is homeless, at a time when people experiencing or on the verge of experiencing homelessness say housing is precarious.

CBC News followed one of The City of Ottawa's outreach teams on Thursday during their 24-hour point-in-time count and spoke with people affected by homelessness.

Rob Main has been dealing with a precarious housing situation in downtown Ottawa. He said his rooming house is being torn down and that he has to find somewhere else by the end of November.

Main added that it's "very hard" to find a place right now.

"Rents so friggin' high now, you can't afford a place. You can't even get a bedroom, a one bedroom — it'll cost you two thousand dollars," said Main. 

Heather Uniat, a woman experiencing homelessness in downtown Ottawa said she just needs a guarantor to get an apartment right now. 

Uniat said she's been homeless for five months.

She said it's important to get a snapshot of the homeless population in the city because people's housing situation can change so quickly.

"I was absolutely astonished the day I was evicted," Uniat said.

Homelessness on the rise

City of Ottawa staff participating in a count of homelessness this week say anecdotally the number of homeless people has gone up over the last three years.

The point-in-time count, the first since 2021, began on Wednesday at noon and finished on Thursday at the same time.

This count is important to identify the overall number of homeless, and how they got there, according to Raynor Boutet, the city's project lead for this year's count.

"The trends are showing that the numbers have been going up consistently over the last three years."

"There does seem to be more folks sleeping outside rather than in shelters," said Ryan Saunders, supervisor of the city's community engagement team.

Hidden homeless

Caroline Yabsley, a City of Ottawa program manager for community shelter operations, said the data is important, but the survey provides the "who" behind the numbers.

She said the data would help inform both short- and long-term policies to help bridge people experiencing precarious housing or homelessness into more permanent housing solutions. 

Boutet said that the hardest people to account for are the "hidden homeless."

People who are couch surfing, in the jail system or in a hospital are harder for the various teams undertaking the count to find.

Survey finishes Monday

While the count itself is done, the survey, which gathers demographic data about those experiencing homelessness, is running until Monday.

The 29-question survey asks questions about a person's history of homelessness, their demographic information, and where they are staying at the time of being surveyed. 

The last point-in-time count in 2021 found that there were 1,340 homeless people in Ottawa. In 2018, there were 1,400.

City staff say final numbers for the 2024 count will be out in the coming weeks.