TORONTO - More than 80,000 people in Ontario were homeless last year, a new report from the province's municipalities shows, in what is the clearest picture of the issue to date.
And nearly half of those people have lived either in shelters or on the streets for more than six months, or experienced recurrent homelessness over the past three years, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario found in its report examining the human and financial cost of the province's homelessness crisis.
"Those numbers are shocking," said Robin Jones, president of the association and the mayor of Westport, Ont., north of Kingston.
The association, which represents 444 municipalities across Ontario, said a fundamentally different approach is needed to tackle the crisis, one that prioritizes long-term housing solutions rather than temporary measures or policing solutions.
That would require an $11-billion investment over 10 years to create more than 75,000 affordable and supportive housing units. The municipalities also said $2 billion over eight years is needed to ensure all people living in encampments are properly housed.
The association pulled data from the province's 47 service managers who deal with social housing and homelessness.
There are now 25 per cent more people living in shelters or on the streets compared to two years ago, the report found.
"Too many people are stuck in a cycle because our homeless response system is broken and poorly funded," Jones said.
AMO policy director Lindsay Jones said they knew the problem was widespread, but still found the total number of homeless people to be "staggering."
"To put the numbers in context, that's about the same size as the city of Peterborough," she said in an interview.
"Imagine everyone in Peterborough being homeless or everybody in Sault Ste. Marie being homeless, that's the scale of what we're talking about."
The provincial and federal governments need to step up, said Karen Redman, who serves as chair of both Waterloo Region and the Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario.
"We're encouraged that they've made a down payment on this issue recognizing that it is not nearly the amount of money that we need to solve chronic homelessness," Redman said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he found the number of homeless people provincewide "concerning."
"I've never seen anything like it," he said. "But we need to support these people, get them back on their feet, get them a good paying job and we need to build more homes."
He also said the province is spending some $700 million on Toronto alone for homelessness prevention.
With a dearth of reliable provincewide data on the issue, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario decided to find it themselves.
The municipalities hired an outside firm, HelpSeeker, to help gather and analyze data. They ran several models to game out what would happen under good, neutral and poor economic scenarios over the next 10 years.
If there is an economic downturn, the modelling suggests there would be nearly 300,000 homeless people within 10 years. Should there be an upturn, they project there would be nearly 130,000.
The municipalities say they are spending a much greater share than higher levels of government in an effort to address homelessness. They collectively spent $2.1 billion in 2024 on homelessness and housing programs, far more than the several hundred million dollars that the province and Ottawa each contribute, the report notes.
The province recently announced a further $50 million for affordable housing and an additional $20 million for shelter funding.
While the money is welcome it's nowhere near enough to solve the crisis, Robin Jones said.
The province announced a fundamental shift last summer in how it approaches the opioid crisis, which affects the homeless population disproportionately.
They will soon require 10 supervised consumption sites to stop operating by the end of March as they are too close to schools and daycares.
Ontario will move instead to an abstinence-based treatment model with the launch of new "homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs" — nine of which were previously supervised consumption sites — by April 1. It also aims to create 375 highly supportive housing units at a cost of $378 million.
Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra's office said Ontario has made the largest investment in affordable housing in the province's history.
"Mayors have asked us for help in managing this complex issue and that is why, over the next three years, we're investing a record $3 billion in affordable housing, anti-homelessness and emergency shelter supports," said Emma Testani, Calandra's spokeswoman.
The report is a "searing indictment" of Ford's government, said New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles.
“Encampments and homelessness in every single community are a stark reminder of this government’s failure," she said in a statement. "After six years, there is still no real plan to address the critical lack of affordable housing that is forcing so many of our neighbours out in the cold."
The association had previously found there were about 1,400 encampments across the province in 2023.
There are more than 268,000 households on waiting lists for affordable homes with an average wait time of five years, the report said.
For some, the wait can be up to 20 years.
This report by °µÍø½ûÇø was first published Jan. 9, 2025.
