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Homelessness in Toronto vs Metro Vancouver: 5,086 vs 2,623

May 27th, 2011 · 23 Comments

We love to think homelessness only exists in Vancouver because people read about our gold-plated services, great weather, and free drugs. However, a recent twitter flurry prompted me to look up stats from a couple of other cities.

For those who are curious, below is an excerpt from a recent fact sheet on homelessness and housing in Toronto. As you see, there were 5,086 homeless people counted during their single-night count (with 22,000+ different people experiencing homelessness over the course of the year) compared to the Metro Vancouver count of 2,623.

Metro Vancouver’s population is about 2.3 million. Toronto’s — assuming that the City of Toronto count extended only to the current boundaries of the mega-city and not to the Greater Toronto Area overall — is about 2.6 million.

Quick Facts

Updated May2011. All figures are latest available at that time.

Homelessness

  1. Estimated number of homeless people sleeping outdoors in Toronto on April 15, 2009: 4001
  2. Percentage change from estimate for April 19, 2006, date of the previous (and first) survey: -51
  3. Estimated overall number of homeless people in Toronto on the evening of April 15, 2009: 5,086
  4. Percentage change from April 19, 2006: +0.7
  5. Number of different people who used shelters in 2010: 22,276
  6. Number in the first decade of the 21st century’s peak year of 2001: 31,175
  7. Number of Toronto shelter facilities as of May 2011: 57
  8. Number of City-operated shelters: 9
  9. Permanent beds on an average night in 2010: 3,800
  10. Average 2010 occupancy rate for single adult and youth: 93% . (Occupancy rate not available for family sector since capacity expands to meet demand through the use of motels. However, average number of people staying in family shelters nightly in 2010, including children was 879
  11. Number of beds added to the system on nights when there is an extreme cold weather alert: 168
  12. Number of people helped to housing by Streets to Homes staff February 2005 to April 2011: >3,000
  13. Number of households staying in emergency shelters that staff help into permanent housing every year: 4,300

Categories: Uncategorized

  • Max

    ‘Civic’ Lee did a great article on the ‘War on homelessness’.

    http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/civiclee/archive/2011/05/26/why-the-war-on-homelessness-is-probably-lost.aspx

  • Tessa

    I don’t think you can really compare the city of Toronto only, which is the central area of a much larger region, with the entirety of Metro Vancouver, which includes a lot of suburbs. Homeless people tend to live in the central areas because that’s where services are, which would make Toronto appear to have a disproportionate amount of homeless people given its size. An accurate comparison would be nice, and it’s good to remember that this is a national problem in part brought on by federal policies and not just provincial and local governments, but I’m worried these numbers as they stand may lead to more misinformation than enlightenment.

  • Frances Bula

    @Max. As I said to Jeff, I thought his blog and tweets reflected an unnecessarily pessimistic point of view.

    People have been working on curing cancer for over half a century. Do we give up because it’s not “cured” yet? Similarly, the cancer of dysfunctional social systems that produce homelessness are not going to be cured in two years. It’s going to take a long, long time to figure out long-term, continuous solutions to homelessness because the phenomenon is caused by very large social shifts — deinstitutionalization, the loss of super-cheap housing where people with behaviour or erratic financial problems could stay housed, the changes in real-estate markets, and more.

    So to say it’s all hopeless just because you haven’t fixed something like this in a few years runs the risk of encouraging people to give up. As well, I still think people are not getting what has been accomplished. As the Toronto stats make clear, there are at least four times as many people who experience homelessness in a year as are counted as homeless on a given night. So to bring the numbers of homeless people counted in one night down by even 20, you need to find a way to ensure that 80 people over the year find a housing solution besides the shelter or a street.

  • Frances Bula

    @Tessa. But those stats were for the new, mega-city Toronto, which includes North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough. It doesn’t include the larger GTA region, but it is not a count restricted just to the “old Toronto.” It also includes many of the suburban areas around that old central city.

  • Ron

    Yeah, if you exclude Mississauga, Markahm, Brampton, OPickering, etc. from TO, then you should at least exclude Surrey, the Langleys, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Delta and White Rock from Vancouver.

  • T Ian McLeod

    The correct comparison is as Frances has it: the old Metro Toronto, now the City of Toronto, population c. 2.6 million, compared with Metro Vancouver, including the City (600,000) plus the 20-odd Metro suburbs for a total of 2.3 million. There may be some questions with regard to the accuracy of one or both counts; perhaps someone else can address that.

  • Max

    Off topic:

    After 75 years, The Hollywood Theatre on W. Broadway is closing its doors after this weekend.
    Sad to see it go.

  • Ned

    Curing cancer and ‘curing’ homelessness.

    “People have been working on curing cancer for over half a century. Do we give up because it’s not “cured” yet?”

    Bad comparison, Frances.

    Cancer is a disease. Homelessness is a man made atrocity, fed by our greed (more for me,me,me less for my neighbor), corrupt politicians (we’d rather continue to spend millions bombing Libya…for now), incompetent bureaucrats (read the Vision implants @ VCH), expensive policing (police, fire, first aid), real estate speculation ( driven by crime proceeds from grow ops, human trafficking, …) lack of support services and compassion, and ultimately apathy towards our human counterpart. Period.

    So, now what? Comparing Toronto to Vancouver so you can wash clean your Vision laundry? Why not look at Rio or Mexico City than, Vancouver would look sparkling clean!
    That’s just pathetic.

  • Michael Geller

    Frances…thank you for doing this research.

    As one of the people behind the flurry of tweets, I am pleased to see that the information I was putting forth regarding one aspect of the Toronto scene appears to be correct, namely:

    Number of people helped to housing by Streets to Homes staff February 2005 to April 2011: >3,000

    To my mind, this is a most interesting fact and worthy of further investigation. As I discovered when I did a tour with the Exec Director of Street to Home in October 2008, they are not relying on creating new shelters or new projects, (although there are some). Instead, they are housing people in existing apartments scattered around the city…and then bringing in support services as required.

    I was told that the program was very successful…again, this needs to be verified, but I was impressed because this seems like a very practical way to go.

    Not everyone could manage in an apartment…some had to be found units in supportive projects…some went back onto the streets…but a significant number managed to remain in apartments and learn to live much more normal lives…get some employment, etc. Over time, the hours of supportive services was reduced.

    Now again, I realize the percentage of drug addicted, mentally ill people might be quite different than Vancouver…but many of the problems are similar.

    I am told that the Coast Foundation has often housed people in scattered apts, and BC Housing has done this on a very limited basis…but our emphasis in the past was creating new units; and more recently, the focus has been on creating HEAT shelters and the like . I am not aware of any efforts by the Vancouver Hsg Dept to put the homeless in scattered apts…if I’m wrong, please let me know.

    I think we should explore whether the Toronto Street to Home model has application here.

    Now over to you!

  • Frances Bula

    @Michael. This 2007 report from Vancouver Coastal Health outlines their strategy for placing people with mental-health issues in a variety of buildings, including scattered sites with supportive workers who travel around doing home visits.

    http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/housing/supportivehousingstrategy/pdf/StrategyJune2007.pdf

    At that point, there were 1,800 such apartments in Vancouver. VCH was projecting to achieve another 2,200 in the next 10 years, with 1,500 of those units in scattered apartments. The Vancouver housing department doesn’t make any efforts to put anyone in any units anywhere. That’s not its role. Putting people in apartments is left to non-profits, Vancouver Coastal and BC Housing. Except for the last couple of years, where the city has provided capital for the HEAT shelters (i.e. the cost of fixing up buildings) and the province has provided the operating money to pay non-profits to operate the shelters, the city’s role has been to create partnerships with other levels of government and agencies to encourage maintaining or creating a variety of low-end housing options, including social housing, the VCH apartments and more.

    One of the things that having the new shelters around is that more people are connecting with non-profit housing staff and being moved to more permanent housing of all of the kinds listed above.

  • Frances Bula

    @Ned. Actually, I thought it was a great comparison. Cancer is a disease that has been proven to be a consequence of many man-made atrocities: cigarettes, asbestos, radiation, chemicals, etc. Agencies that are fighting cancer these days are working just as much on the human activities that lead to cancer as on the medical cures. That’s why the BC chapter of the Canadian Cancer Association is currently on a campaign, for example, to have pesticides banned for lawn use.

    So, just like with homelessness, some people are working on curing the problem once it exists (medical doctors, homeless workers) and some are working on grappling with the social dynamics that create homelessness.

    As for comparing Vancouver with Toronto — it wasn’t my idea to compare Vancouver and Toronto. I looked up the Toronto stats because others were claiming that the homeless situation was better there and I got curious.

  • Frances Bula

    @Ron. Not sure what point you’re trying to make. I excluded Mississauga, et al, because they’re not part of what’s considered Toronto proper, although the suburbs of Scarborough and Etobicoke are. However, if you want to make that comparison, then here are the numbers: City of Toronto proper: 5,026 homeless people counted; City of Vancouver proper, 1,705 homeless people counted. Does that make it seem better?

  • Richard

    Seems like it is obvious that the federal (and provincial) government needs to really step up and start providing the funding needed to make sure everyone has a safe home. They must love all this squabbling amongst ourselves that just deflects attention from them.

    I learned long ago that if you are really serious about solving a problem, you will focus on the people that have real power to do something about it.

  • Michael Geller

    Frances Bula thank you for your response. But I can’t let this one pass…

    “The Vancouver housing department doesn’t make any efforts to put anyone in any units anywhere.”

    Unfortunately, you are right, which is why it took so long for the City to lease up 1 Kingsway and why there are over 100 empty City-owned rental units at Olympic Village.

    As we look to the future, I think we need to review the role, responsibilities and capabilities of the Vancouver Housing ‘department’ in a comprehensive way, now that so many of the people with expertise and experience are gone…Cameron Gray, Jill Davidson, and Rob Whitlock to name just three.

    We also need to examine the respective roles of the Province, the City and the Non-Profits and their current working relationships. While these relationships generally worked well in the past, they have broken down. I hate to be so negative again, Frances, but just speak to the leaders in the non-profit housing community, and senior officials at the Province, and you’ll quickly find out that sadly, the situation at the moment seems to be at an all time low.

    If you need any evidence of this, just look at the trail of events leading up to the current situation with the social housing at Olympic Village.

    Maybe ‘Talk Housing to Us’ will help identify some of the issues…and potential solutions. However, as one of the participants at the first THTU ‘stakeholder workshop’ I discovered most people who really know what is going on are afraid or reluctant to speak out.

    Pity, because the current situation is seriously affecting the city’s ability to successfully address many of the housing problems in the city.

  • Lewis N. Villegas

    “I learned long ago that if you are really serious about solving a problem, you will focus on the people that have real power to do something about it.”

    Richard 13

    Bang on. The issue for Toronto & Vancouver homelessness is that the Federal Government must be part of a Zero-Homelessness policy. That would bring every Canadian city into parity… at Zero.

  • Tessa

    @Frances: I’m well aware it includes the current city of Toronto boundaries, and I wrote my last comment based on that. I still feel that a better comparison to Greater Vancouver would be Greater Toronto, and that you can’t make direct comparisons based on the statistics cited above.

    It’s not a bad idea to look at other cities, and like I said, it’s a good reminder that we’re not an island when it comes to dealing with this issue. I have to wonder if homelessness has been increasing nationally in the last decade or two, and I strongly suspect that it has with the level of cuts coming from both the federal government and various provinces, and I suspect the trend is similar in other western countries.

    I’m just worried that the way this information is presented shows a view that Toronto is oh so much worse than us, which I don’t think the statistics here would support.

  • Max

    On a different note:

    3 homeless men in my neighborhood had their belongings taken by city workers.

    Sean, who is (or says he is, I don’t know ) in a meth program had his cleaning kit taken.

    I will attest, he had a bucket, cleaning agents, a long window pole and a short window pole. He did odd jobs in the neighborhood for money.

    His buddy Glen tells me the stuff was worth $84.

    Chris who is 61 had his cart and goods taken. (not the first time – seems like a spring/summer cleaning thing)

    Don’t worry Mayor Robertson, I made sure they had dinner and snacks tonight but perhaps you would kindly replace Sean’s items. After all, what happened to him is no different than theft, regarldess of him being homeless.

  • Adele Chow

    No hope for Toronto with someone like Rob Ford as Mayor. The voters will get what they deserve: a regressive, pro-suburb civic government that does nothing for homelessness and could care less about anybody but wealthy landowners. Thank goodness Vancouver doesn’t have this kind of civic government (unless the NPA comes back in force).

  • Michael Geller

    “Thank goodness Vancouver doesn’t have this kind of civic government (unless the NPA comes back in force).”

    Adele Chow, do you really believe this? If so, I suggest you attend the NPA convention on Saturday and listen to the various candidates. I think you’ll find that all are as concerned about addressing homelessness and the interests of a broader public….not just wealthy landowners…as Vision and COPE politicians.

    They may just have different solutions to address these problems…opinions that may also be worth considering.

  • Frances Bula

    @ Michael. That is really twisting words to take my statement about the city’s role in housing — it does not directly place people into units — as some kind of statement about incompetence or dysfunction or shirking of duty. I was talking about what the city has defined as its mandate, a mandate that’s been in place for decades.

    It doesn’t put people into individual units because that has not been its traditional job. Judy Rogers and other city managers have always insisted that the city not take over responsibilities that belong to other levels of government. The only reason the City of Toronto is directly putting people into units of housing is because the Mike Harris government downloaded all social housing — poorly maintained buildings and all — to Ontario cities. As a result, the city now has to do the job that BC Housing does here. Surely that’s not something we want here.

    There may problems in the city’s housing department, in terms of losing institutional knowledge and losing its sense of direction, but that’s quite different from what you appear to be suggesting, which is that the city start duplicating the responsibilities of other levels of government that are currently running housing programs.

  • Michael Geller

    “The only reason the City of Toronto is directly putting people into units of housing is because the Mike Harris government downloaded all social housing — poorly maintained buildings and all — to Ontario cities”

    Frances, this is wrong, and surely you know it is wrong. But first…

    Yes I was ‘twisting’ your words and acknowledged as much…but my point is that the city has entered into the development and management of housing, and we now need to talk about how it’s doing.

    More specifically, should Vancouver establish a Housing Corporation with suitable staffing, given its increased interest and involvement in housing. This would not be new. As some will remember, the City had a Housing Corporation in the 70’s headed by Morris Jerroff and during its tenure built housing and put people in units. It continues to own apartments…to the best of my knowledge.

    The reason that you are wrong in suggesting that Toronto only got thrust into housing by Mike Harris, is that it was building and managing housing for decades before Harris became premier in 1995. CityHome was the name of the Toronto housing entity that oversaw the development of the St. Lawrence Community, and many other projects. It has continued to function in a variety of ways till this day.

    During the last Municipal Election, ThinkCity organized a debate that included Ellen Woodsworth, Geoff Meggs and myself, moderated by Charlie Smith. One of the topics was whether the City should create a Housing Corporation. I was not opposed to the idea…indeed, I could support it, provided it was properly staffed and structured.

    I think this continues to hold true…and given the City’s increased interest and involvement in housing initiatives, it is time to have the discussion again.

  • George

    Micheal Geller @30
    I lived in a CityHome building in Toronto, many years ago. It was located by the Dunfield Club Yonge and Eglinton area….they were really nice buildings well run, and affordable.

    I had forgotten that apartment… thanks for the memory ..

  • Frances Bula

    @Michael 21. I had forgotten that Toronto had its own housing program, CityHome, which then got absorbed into the gigantic Toronto Housing Corporation created when Mike Harris downloaded the 30,000 or 40,000 units of social/public housing onto Ontario cities. From everything I’ve been able to read about CityHome, it was primarily developing low-cost housing for a low-middle-income group of city residents, townhouses, small apartment buildings, the St. Lawrence Market development. Seems to have been a product of the exuberant 70s, when that was the focus — not what it is now in the 90s and 2000s, a question of trying to figure out what kind of housing works for the mentally ill, drug addicted and other very marginalized who have been the most squeezed by the craziness of the real-estate market in recent decades.

    But Toronto aside — I’m sort of flabbergasted to hear you suddenly advocating that the City of Vancouver should take on the roles of developing housing and managing it. Hasn’t it been your position for the last year that the city should not get involved in development? Haven’t you been saying that the city is not a very good manager of the existing small stock of rental apartments or social housing it does have?

    And I actually haven’t seen much sign that the city is interested in developing and managing buildings under this administration. The impetus to build market rental at 1 Kingsway and social housing at the Olympic village came from previous NPA administrations. Although this admin has been pushing for more shelters and more transitional housing (like the Vancouver remand centre), it has stayed away from committing itself to the kinds of social housing projects that take 10s of millions of dollars. Left it to the province to do that.

    And my other question for you is — what do you think the city could do that BC Housing and Vancouver Coastal Health (which is using the scattered-apartments approach that you seem to think is missing here) aren’t doing?

    If the city does decide to try some Verdant-style projects, using city land and secondary mortgages, to create affordable middle-income housing, maybe it will need a new kind of housing department and/or foundation.

    But that’s quite different from having the city duplicate Coastal Health’s efforts at housing people in apartments around the city.