Social conditions: Homelessness
How many people experience homelessness, and why are counts so hard?
An estimated 119,574 people stayed in an emergency shelter at least once in 2024, and shelters were 88.4% full on an average night. Fewer people use shelters than in 2005, but those who do stay longer: chronic homelessness has risen to about 36,058 people.
- Shelter users, 2024
- 119,574
- −23% since 2005
- Chronically homeless
- 36,058
- 30.2% of shelter users, +25% since 2017
- Counted on one night, 2024
- 59,824
- In 74 communities
- Unsheltered that night
- 17,088
- +107% vs 2020–22 (same communities)
Two decades of shelter data
Emergency shelter use, 2005–2024
People who used an emergency shelter during the year. Shelter capacity was cut in 2020–2021 for pandemic distancing.
Chronic homelessness among shelter users, 2017–2024
Estimated number of shelter users who were chronically homeless (six months or more in the past year, or 18 months over three years).
One night in 2024: the point-in-time count
Communities count everyone they can find in shelters, transitional housing and outdoors on a single night, and survey them.
Where people were on the night of the count, 74 communities
59,824 people counted in total.
Change since the 2020–2022 counts
% change in the 56 communities that counted in both rounds.
Where the beds are
Shelter capacity by province and territory, 2024
Beds on December 31, 2024, per 10,000 residents. ‘All beds’ adds transitional housing and domestic violence shelters.
Who experiences homelessness
Who uses shelters, 2024
% of shelter users. Indigenous Peoples are about 5% of Canada’s population.
Concepts
Exercises
Switch the shelter chart to Occupancy. In which years were shelters at or above 90% full on average?
Show a hint
Use the table view and look down the occupancy column.
Shelter users fell 23% from 2005 to 2024 while beds rose and occupancy stayed high. Use the idea of stocks and flows (people entering, length of stay, people exiting) to explain how both can be true.
Check your reasoning
The number of people in shelters on a given night (the stock) equals the inflow rate times the average length of stay. If stays get much longer, the stock can rise even as fewer different people pass through in a year.
The 2024 point-in-time count found 59,824 people on one night, while the shelter study estimates 119,574 shelter users over the year. Are these numbers contradictory? Explain.
Check your reasoning
No. One measures a single night (a stock), the other counts everyone over a year (a cumulative flow). Most people who use shelters stay for short periods, so the annual total is much larger than any one night.
Housing First costs more per person per year than shelters for some participants. Design a cost-benefit comparison: what costs and benefits would you include, and which ones are hardest to measure?
Check your reasoning
Include housing and support costs versus shelter, emergency room, hospital, police and court costs avoided, plus benefits such as health and employment. Hardest to measure: quality of life, long-run outcomes and effects on families. At Home/Chez Soi found that for high-need participants, every $10 spent on Housing First reduced other service costs by about $9.60.