On January 16, 2008, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities released "Trends and Issues in Affordable Housing and Homelessness", part of their Quality of Life series. The report examines affordable housing and homelessness between 2001 and 2006 in 22 Canadian municipalities.

The Quality of Life Reporting System relies on a definition of homelessness that includes singles and families experiencing any of the following conditions:

• Rooflessness: staying overnight in a place not meant for human habitation (e.g., a vacant building, a public or commercial facility, a city park, a car or on the street)
• Living in an Emergency Shelter: singles and families relying on the emergency shelter system on a shortterm or recurrent basis
• Invisible homelessness: temporarily and/or involuntarily living with friends or relatives ("couch-surfing") or exchanging favours in return for housing; and,
• Houselessness: includes people who reside in long-term institutions because there is no suitable accommodation in the community and youth living in care.

Due to numerous methodological and practical challenges, there continue to be few statistics available which reliably monitor changes in the incidence of homelessness. At the same time, a combination of street counts and estimates from several (QOLRS) communities consistently suggest that the level of homelessness is not decreasing.

FACTS ON HOMELESSNESS BY SELECT PROVINCES:

British Columbia

• According to the 2007 Greater Vancouver Vital Signs Report, there was a significant increase in the number of street homeless in Greater Vancouver between 2002 and 2005, going from 333 people in 2002 to 1,127 in 2005.

Alberta

• The City of Calgary conducted a one-day count of homeless persons in 2006, including usage of Emergency Shelter and Transitional facilities, and street counts. The 3,436 individuals counted represented an increase of 34 per cent from 2004.
• Edmonton’s one-day count in 2006 was the latest of seven to be conducted by the city. The report found that although significant progress has been made towards addressing homelessness needs, homelessness continues to be a growing issue in Edmonton. The one-day observed homeless count, which is an indication of the scale of homelessness, increased from 836 in 1999 to 1,915 in 2002 to 2,618 in 2006. Growth was most evident among singles, which accounted for 90 per cent of all homeless people in 2006.

Ontario

• Toronto completed its first street needs assessment in 2006. A total of 5,052 individuals were identified. The majority (72.2 per cent) were staying at a shelter. The number of individuals staying in shelters was highest in 2001: 31,175 people (men, women and children). Beginning in 2002 and continuing to 2006, the number of families and the number of children decreased.
• Waterloo’s Homelessness to Housing Stability Strategy provides these estimates: in 1999, the first calculation of the annual prevalence of homelessness estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 people experienced homelessness over the course of a year inWaterloo. The 2006 Inventory of Services estimated 4,832 individuals aged 16 and over used emergency shelters.
• According to the Hamilton Social Planning & Research Council, the number of people using an emergency shelter at least once a year has almost doubled over the last 20 years in Hamilton. This data is also reflected in "on a given night" shelter counts conducted by the Social Planning and Research Council showing 160 people staying in emergency shelters on a given night in November 1995, and over 400 in November 2006.

Nova Scotia

• In the Halifax Regional Municipality, a total of 266 homeless persons were surveyed in 2004. This represents a 13 per cent increase in the number of individuals identified as homeless from the 2003 survey. While the number of homeless individuals in the Halifax Regional Municipality cannot be said to have increased by 13 per cent, the study did conclude that the situation has not been improved and may have deteriorated.

Stats from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities report "Trends and Issues in Affordable Housing and Homelessness"