This week, the Balanced Supply of Housing team attended the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) conference, and we left energized, inspired, and reminded of something crucial: we are part of a massive, committed sector doing some of the most important work in the country. As we gathered with hundreds of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and community leaders, the message was clear—our voices matter, our data matters, and now more than ever, our collective action matters.
With the Build Canada Homes platform gaining momentum and a federal budget on the horizon next week, this moment feels pivotal. The right to housing and housing-first principles aren’t just ideals—they’re policy imperatives that demand our continued advocacy and collaboration.
The Data Tells a Stark Story
We started the conference with sobering data from the Homeless Individuals and Communities at Risk (HICC) session. The numbers paint a picture we cannot ignore:
Homelessness has doubled across Canada from 2018 to 2024, according to Point-in-Time (PIT) counts. In 56 communities with multiple counts, there was a 79% increase from 2020-22, including a 62% increase in transitional housing, 71% increase in shelters, and a staggering 107% increase in unsheltered areas.
While shelter capacity increased by 40%, the unsheltered population also doubled from 14% to 28%. Shelters have not kept up with growing need, even as we’ve invested significantly in emergency responses. According to the Beyond Everyone Counts 2024 National Homelessness Indicators, as of March 2025, the national median rate of overall homelessness was 25.5 people per 10,000 population—consistent with the 2024 Point-in-Time Count rate of 26 people per 10,000.
Rates are highest in smaller communities (tier 1-4), challenging assumptions that homelessness is solely an urban crisis. On a single night, over 67,000 people experience homelessness across the country.
The connection between poverty and shelter use isn’t coincidental—these trends mirror each other, both rising sharply since the pandemic. Meanwhile, Black Canadians remain drastically overrepresented at 17% of those experiencing homelessness, and Indigenous peoples continue to face systemic barriers to housing stability. Among those surveyed, Indigenous people comprised one-third (33%) of respondents, compared to 5% in the general population—representing over six times their proportion in the Canadian population.
Perhaps most telling: 47% of people experiencing homelessness had their first experience before age 25, and 29% had been involved in child services. This isn’t a story about individual failures—it’s a structural crisis rooted in the erosion of affordable housing and the financialization of what should be a fundamental right.
Indigenous, Black, and 2SLGBTQI+ respondents are overrepresented among those experiencing homelessness, reflecting deep systemic inequities that demand urgent attention.
The Evictions Crisis: A Pipeline to Homelessness
The Canadian Housing Survey presentation on evictions revealed the devastating connection between housing loss and homelessness. Among those who experienced homelessness, 28% indicated they had also experienced an eviction at some point in their past. Among all households that experienced either hidden or absolute homelessness in 2021, 9.8% reported that they were evicted that same year.
The data on reasons for housing loss revealed insufficient income as the most frequently reported reason across all age groups—from youth (34%) to seniors (42%). More than one-third (38%) reported that housing loss was related to an eviction. Among households who were evicted in 2021, 19.1% indicated they experienced hidden homelessness in the same year.
The inequities are stark and deeply racialized. Despite making only 14.7% of the racialized population, Black Canadians experience 24.4% of evictions among racialized groups. Meanwhile, 46.0% of immigrants who live in Ontario have previously experienced an eviction. Despite 4.3% of all renters identifying as Indigenous, 5.9% of all renters who experienced an eviction identify as Indigenous.
People who have been evicted have the lowest self-reported physical and mental health. The chance of being evicted more than doubles for people self-reporting a higher degree of disability. Households that reported living with mental health challenges were more likely to be late on rent and have conflicts with landlords, suggesting that housing supports should include mental health supports.
The data gaps remain significant—we’re only capturing tenant experiences, not landlord behaviors, and we lack longitudinal data on repeat evictions and their cascading impacts. The policy implications are clear: we need stronger data collection to better understand the scale of eviction in Canada, and we must develop data to explore the short- and long-term connections between evictions and homelessness.
Rethinking the Housing Continuum
Dr. David Wachsmuth’s presentation on homeless encampments challenged the linear “housing continuum” model many jurisdictions rely on. His research across Southern Ontario hotels-as-shelters, Montreal encampments, and Vancouver co-op housing revealed that transitions are rarely linear.
Wachsmuth introduced a new framework that maps housing transitions along two distinct dimensions: stability (from instability to stability) and autonomy (from dependency to autonomy). This reframing shows that people don’t simply move left to right along a continuum—they move between various housing situations based on complex individual circumstances and systemic barriers.
His findings on encampment transitions were particularly revealing. Most people enter encampments from other forms of homelessness—the circular pattern between sleeping on the street, emergency shelters, and encampments themselves. Most transitions in and out of encampments are to and from other forms of homelessness, including other encampments. When people do transition from other housing situations, two circumstances stand out: evictions from private market housing (linked to the affordable housing crisis) or public housing (forced to leave due to broken rules, making it very difficult to find other supportive housing).
A small number of encampment residents are able to transition into supportive or subsidized housing. More commonly, people are moved out because police break up encampments and residents move to dispersed, smaller sites.
Participants in his research emphasized clear needs: to support successful transitions out of encampments, more funding is needed for transitional and social housing; to support successful transitions, more support is needed for mental health and addiction services; and to ameliorate the reality of stalled transitions out of encampments, additional services could be provided on site.
His cross-cutting findings resonated deeply with BSH’s research focus:
- Lack of affordable housing is the common constraint on effective housing policy
- Subsidized housing is the continuum’s “missing middle,” but current models don’t reflect lived realities
- Housing community is central to supporting successful transitions—we need options beyond standard market housing
Addressing Critical Data Gaps
The conference highlighted significant gaps in how we understand and measure homelessness in Canada. The 2026 Census will include questions on homelessness experience, expected to allow enumeration of hidden homelessness and development of a comprehensive national estimate of homelessness. However, the census cannot measure unsheltered homelessness—which is where Point-in-Time Counts become essential.
Three key data gaps require urgent attention:
Systems homelessness: Greater collaboration is needed between public health, corrections, and the homeless-serving sector, as well as future collaboration with other systems like child welfare and education systems.
Rural and remote homelessness: Further engagement is needed to collect data on homelessness in rural and remote communities, with specific engagement with Indigenous communities to prioritize implementation of Indigenous-led counts.
Hidden homelessness: Point-in-Time counts are not able to enumerate hidden homelessness, yet survey results help to shed light on this experience. Other approaches are needed for measurement.
The BSH Panel: Systems-Level Solutions for a Systems-Level Crisis
Our panel brought together four BSH researchers to discuss the barriers facing non-profit housing development and the systemic changes needed to scale solutions. The conversation was rich, urgent, and deeply practical.
Ines Zerrouki: The Erosion Challenge
Zerrouki tackled the harsh reality of non-profit housing barriers in Montreal. The acquisition of existing buildings typically involves buyers paying at or above market rate based on financial expectations of the land. Existing tenants can no longer afford rent as it increases to accommodate the new mortgage, proliferating gentrification through speculation throughout entire neighborhoods.
Her message was direct: for housing-first to succeed, we need housing first. That means better laws to protect renters, comprehensive databases on landlords and rents, and urban planning policies that prioritize people over profit.
Nat Pace: The CLT Model as Strategic Defense
Pace presented on the Community Land Trust (CLT) model and how it’s emerging as a critical strategy for stewarding real estate. CLTs can serve as partners to non-profits, operating on CLT-owned land and providing stability against displacement pressures. We’ve seen this work in places like Parkdale, where the CLT has become an acquisition strategy to protect existing affordable housing rather than solely focusing on new construction.
The challenge? Acquisition needs more government funding. CLTs are well-positioned to act, but they need the financial backing to move quickly when affordable housing stock becomes available. Pace also emphasized the need for governments to work together when it comes to funding—providing support for the entire lifetime of developments, not just the initial construction phase.
Pace’s final point cut to the heart of the matter: we’re living in a settler colonial environment, and meaningful progress requires deep structural shifts and land back initiatives—something the CLT sector is ready to take on.
Dr. Nik Luka: Municipal Empowerment and Clearing the Thickets
Luka’s remarks on NIMBYism reframed the conversation around what municipalities actually need in order to meet the housing crisis head-on. Municipalities need to be empowered in different ways, not just told to do more with less.
His recommendations included:
- Prioritizing public land ownership to create permanent affordable infrastructure
- Building municipal capacity and the larger building ecosystem to fast-track affordable non-profit housing
- Implementing differential zoning for non-profit projects
- Incorporating upstream due diligence costs into stable funding streams like government-backed guarantees and CLT networks
Erika Sagert: The Power of Collective Action
Sagert emphasized something that’s core to BSH’s mission: non-profits need to come together and share effective approaches. The sector already knows how to do this work well. Adaptability is the bread and butter of the non-profit housing world. But we need to diversify revenue streams without letting governments off the hook for serving different community needs.
Her advice was tactical and strategic:
- Be proactive with government relationships
- Be clear and ready so you can jump on opportunities when you’re in the right room
- Move as one sector—the easiest way to ignore non-profit housing is to claim we don’t know what we want
Currently, municipalities depend heavily on property taxes, which fundamentally limits space for non-profit viability. Luka pointed to specific barriers like single egress requirements that drive up costs for affordable multi-family buildings—what he called ” débroussaillage,” or clearing away the thickets. We need to systematically remove barriers that make scaling so difficult.
She also raised a critical gap: how little health is at the table when it comes to housing solutions. Non-profit providers are increasingly doing the work of healthcare providers. We need to bring health to the table in a big way, with integrated funding that recognizes housing as a social determinant of health.
The evictions and health data presented earlier in the conference reinforced this point dramatically. Those who have experienced eviction report the lowest physical and mental health outcomes, and households with mental health challenges face higher rates of rent arrears and conflicts with landlords.
The Devastating Math: 11 to 1
Perhaps the starkest statistic from our panel: for every new affordable home added, 11 are lost. This isn’t a supply problem we can simply build our way out of—it’s a protection and preservation crisis. Without aggressive acquisition strategies, anti-speculation policies, and long-term operating funding, we’ll continue losing ground no matter how much we build.
What We Heard from Minister Gregor Robertson
Having Gregor Robertson as the keynote speaker—now serving as Minister of Housing and Infrastructure—felt particularly meaningful given his lived experience as Vancouver’s mayor during acute housing crises. His message centred on commitment, collaboration, and the necessity of sustained investment.
Key announcements and insights:
- $7 million invested into 16 communities across Canada through the Homeless Reduction Innovation Fund (HRIF)
- Focus on prevention teams to intervene before people enter homelessness, which tied back to HICC’s findings from an earlier session
- Enhanced veteran-focused supports
- Recognition that the first responsibility of government is caring for the most vulnerable
Robertson acknowledged the scale of the problem candidly: Canada has built woefully inadequate non-market housing for decades, and the repercussions are felt across every community. The investment needs to scale dramatically and continue for many years.
On the upcoming budget, he signaled $13 billion in commitments this year toward affordable housing and homelessness, with a focus on transitional and supportive housing. The full platform is $35 billion, making this year’s allocation a significant down payment. He emphasized the need for a “one-stop shop” in government focused specifically on non-market housing.
Notably, he discussed the $1.5 billion Rental Protection Fund designed to help non-profits purchase and maintain affordable rental buildings at risk—exactly the kind of acquisition-focused policy our panelists emphasized.
When asked about the future of Reaching Home and the National Housing Strategy (set to sunset in 2027-28), Robertson committed to renewal conversations and emphasized the need to invest across the spectrum, especially in supportive housing and the missing middle. He noted that non-market housing currently represents only about 4% of Canada’s housing stock—we have enormous ground to cover.
What Gives Us Hope
Robertson ended with a question: what gives you hope that we can end homelessness in Canada? His answer: the work that everyone in the room is doing.
We share that sentiment. This conference reminded us that we’re not working in isolation. There are hundreds of organizations, thousands of practitioners, and countless researchers generating the evidence and building the solutions this crisis demands. The scale of the problem is unimaginably big, but awareness and commitment are at historic levels.
With the Prime Minister’s leadership signal and the upcoming budget, we’re at a tipping point. The data is clear. The solutions are known. The sector is ready.
As we anticipate the detailed federal budget next week, BSH remains committed to our core mission: informing policy and systemic changes that address socio-economic and racial inequities so the right to housing is realized and everyone is housed well. We’re continuing our work on responsive land practices and reshaping housing financialization across Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
Our message matters. Our research matters. And together, as a sector united around the right to housing and housing-first principles, we can turn this tide.
The Balanced Supply of Housing is a SSHRC-CMHC funded, community-based research project at UBC that focuses on land use and housing financialization across Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
