Indigenous people make up over three-quarters of homeless population in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Taylor Adair says she isn't surprised the majority of people in Thunder Bay, Ont., experiencing homelessness are Indigenous, but the numbers are still disheartening.

"There's a lot of hidden homelessness, a lot of overcrowding in some of these situations as well that [the] community has really brought forward to us, and that we see daily in our front-line work," said Adair, who is branch manager of housing at the Ontario Native Women's Association in Thunder Bay.

A point-in-time count in the city found 557 people experiencing homelessness, 78 per cent of which were Indigenous. The count was done over a 24-hour period the first weekend of October and was overseen by the Lakehead Social Planning Council (LSPC).

"We're seeing an epidemic of homelessness from Thunder Bay, and this data proves it," said Bonnie Krysowaty, co-ordinator of the Poverty Reduction Strategy and researcher/program manager at the LSPC.

People experiencing homelessness were surveyed at three locations where they frequently access services: the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre, Elevate NWO, and People Advocating for Change Through Empowerment (PACE).

Indigenous people made up just over 14 per cent of Thunder Bay's population in the 2021 census.

Nationally, while Indigenous people comprise about five per cent of Canada's population, they represent nearly a third of those experiencing homelessness.

We're seeing an epidemic of homelessness from Thunder Bay, and this data proves it.- Bonnie Krysowaty, Lakehead Social Planning Council

"[There are] definitely systemic barriers that Indigenous communities face, definitely a lack of culturally-safe and Indigenous gender-based shelter options," said Adair.

Other minority groups – those who identified as Arabian, Asian, Black and Sri Lankan – made up 13 per cent of respondents in the city's count.

"Specific cultural supports that are appropriate, safe – I think that's really important, because that makes offering people supports and services and connecting them to housing a lot easier," Krysowaty said.

Substance use top reason for housing loss

The results also highlight some common issues facing the city's unhoused population.

For example, about 43 per cent of those surveyed have spent time in foster care or a group home. Of those, more than 30 per per cent said Child Protection Services were not helpful in their transition out of the system.

Substance use, problems with a partner, and not having enough income were the top three reasons why people said they lost their housing.

Thunder Bay continues to be among communities hit hardest by the opioid crisis in Ontario, seeing the second-highest opioid death rate in the province in the first half of 2024, according to Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner.

Holly Gauvin is the executive director of Elevate NWO, a harm reduction agency that leads outreach efforts in the city's homeless encampments.

In a recent interview with CBC News, she said getting people into housing is essential in order for them to address other challenges in their lives, such as substance use.

"Let's get those wraparound supports going, let's make sure that people have all the options on the table, everything from the far end of harm reduction all the way through to those abstinence-based programs — when and if they decide that that's the right choice for them," Gauvin said.

"It is all about connecting people up with health care, connecting people up with housing sources, connecting people up with resources that they need to survive."

Using data as an advocacy tool

The last point-in-time count in Thunder Bay was done in 2021, but Krysowaty said the COVID-19 pandemic limited what could be gathered, making it difficult to compare the two.

Still, she sees a clear jump in how far homelessness has escalated in the city since then.

"More Indigenous people being surveyed this time around, more people at emergency shelters and encampments this time around – those numbers are higher," she said.

"We know this number is a gross under-count and that in reality, if we went out every single day and surveyed people, the number would be much higher than 557."

The next step is sharing the information collected through the point-in-time count "as widely as possible."

"This is the information that will help organizations, governments, community groups, etcetera, decide what kinds of programs, what kinds of initiatives, supports and resources should be available for people that are going through the experience of homelessness," Krysowaty said.

Furthermore, "organizations need data to get funding."

Addiction counselling, mental health counselling, and support for ongoing medical conditions were the top three services respondents said they needed. As for immediate help, having a bus pass, food, and a cell phone were the main day-to-day supports they said would make life easier.

For Adair's part, she'd like to see more rent controls in the private market, more rent supplement programs, and more initiatives led by and for Indigenous people.

"With Indigenous people being so heavily impacted by colonialism, so heavily impacted by systemic barriers, having that culturally wrapped-around support is giving Indigenous people equal access to the supports that they need in a safe environment," Adair said.

"Those supports also really aid and assist with healing, and then maintaining housing or maintaining any other supports that are really going on in their life."

The city is looking at creating a temporary village for people experiencing homelessness to divert them from encampments and into spaces with more on-site support. Meanwhile, it's eyeing ambitious targets for new builds, with $20.7 million from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund to reach 1,691 new units by February 2027.

People can view the key highlights of the point-in-time count in an infographic on LSPC's website. A full report is being released in December.