Homelessness in northern Ontario has grown 4 times faster than in rest of province: AMO report
Sarah Law | CBC News | Posted: January 14, 2025 9:00 AM | Last Updated: January 14
Advocates call for more transitional housing, income support for people most at risk
Homelessness in northern Ontario has grown four times faster than in non-northern communities in the last eight years, and new research suggests the region's rates could more than quadruple over the next decade.
The numbers come from a report released on Thursday by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, in partnership with the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association and the Northern Ontario Service Deliverers Association.
Known homelessness in northern Ontario has grown from 1,771 people in 2016 to 5,377 in 2024, it says.
"By 2035, projections estimate that known homelessness in the north could climb to between 10,674 and 26,633 people, depending on economic conditions.
"These figures highlight northern communities' acute vulnerabilities, which are driven by geographic isolation, limited infrastructure, and systemic inequities," the report says.
"We knew it was there, but we didn't think it goes to that extent," said Fern Dominelli, executive director of the Northern Ontario Service Deliverers Association.
"That's really scary. For northern Ontario, first of all, we have a lack of services for homeless people in the north, lack of shelters … so it's a real concern for us."
AMO, which represents Ontario's 444 municipalities, is calling for a new approach to the crisis, and has cost out an $11-billion investment over a decade to create more than 75,000 affordable and supportive housing units.
WATCH | New report finds 80,000 people were homeless in Ontario last year:
"As well, we'd need to focus on prevention, which [helps] people from becoming chronically homeless in the first place with things like rental supplements and more case management intervention," Lindsay Jones, director of policy at AMO, told CBC's Up North.
"What we were really hoping for in doing this report is to help our provincial government to feel the same sense of urgency and priority that municipal governments feel when they think about this crisis."
The report comes on the heels of the provincial government introducing legislation that would allow municipalities to dismantle homeless encampments.
Indigenous, incarcerated people disproportionately affected
Indigenous people make up about 45 per cent of those experiencing chronic homelessness in northern Ontario, AMO's report says.
About 78 per cent of the unhoused population in Thunder Bay is Indigenous, according to the city's most recent point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness.
"I think that speaks to the rural and regional disparities as well as just the ongoing displacement of Indigenous people from their communities [who] are coming to other communities and experiencing homelessness here due to racism and systemic failures," said Lindsay Martin, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northwestern Ontario.
The organization serves women and gender-diverse people that have been involved in the criminal justice system.
One of the top reasons for housing loss cited in Thunder Bay's point-in-time count in the fall was incarceration.
"They may have housing set up and then going through this justice process, they're losing all of their housing — and then when they're released, they're released into homelessness," Martin said.
"More supportive, transitional housing for that population in particular, I think, is critical."
Martin wants a reintegration and bail centre built in Thunder Bay, and said that would help reduce overcrowding in the prison system while mitigating homelessness among those most at risk.
Transitional housing key priority in Thunder Bay
Last month, the Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board (TBDSSAB) announced $8.3 million in funding through the provincial government's Homelessness Prevention Program to support 66 new transitional housing units in the city.
A dozen of these units are being created by the Elizabeth Fry Society at a converted house on Syndicate Avenue. The organization already operates two transitional housing buildings in the city that offer on-site support and programming.
This kind of low-barrier housing helps individuals "with life skills and support and options to dive into their culture and options to find education opportunities and employment opportunities," Martin said.
Brian Hamilton, chair of TBDSSAB and a Thunder Bay city councillor, said the board is continuing to focus on transitional housing to help people develop the tools they need to maintain long-term shelter.
The findings of AMO's homelessness report concern him, especially the projections of how much worse the rates could become.
Reducing the barriers to housing, he said, is essential.
"Homelessness isn't strictly about mental health, it's not strictly about addiction. We are also looking at a layer of unaffordability for many residents and rents just being unachievable," Hamilton said.
"Myself, I'm a renter; it is incredibly expensive to rent. If you don't have a job, if you don't have references, if you have any vulnerabilities in your references, you are not going to be able to rent."
Representatives of TBDSSAB are preparing for the upcoming Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference in Toronto that starts Sunday. The annual event brings rural municipal leaders together with provincial and federal elected officials to discuss challenges in their regions.
Hamilton said TBDSSAB will be advocating for a provincewide supportive housing strategy, higher social assistance rates and consistent, reliable funding for service providers.
Going forward, he wants to continue to see a co-ordinated response to homelessness in Thunder Bay — which he says community partners are succeeding with — along with more empathy for those who are unhoused.
"What we don't need is to vilify and further victimize people that are already struggling so hard," he said.
"I think the community awareness around mental health and addictions has grown. The complexity has grown with that, however, and we need to respond accordingly."