The results of Toronto's first Street Needs Assessment were released Friday. Teams fanned out across the city one night in April to count the number of people sleeping on the streets or in shelters and to determine what kind of programs and services would best help them find permanent housing.
The city says it counted 5,052 homeless people on April 19th, but officials say that doesn't reflect the number of "hidden homeless" who may be staying with friends or family temporarily.
More than 70 percent of those counted spent the night in a homeless shelter. Nine out of 10 surveyed said they wanted permanent housing and only 37 percent reported being on a waiting list for a home.
"The information gathered on which services Toronto's homeless people use and what we need to do to help these individuals find permanent housing is tremendously important," Mayor David Miller said in a statement.
"The findings confirm that we are moving in the right direction with our Streets to Homes initiative - which has now found permanent housing for over 700 formerly homeless people directly from the street."
The teams that conducted the $90,000 assessment were comprised of members of community organizations, city staff and volunteers.
"Because of the Street Needs Assessment, for the first time we have a much clearer picture of homelessness in Toronto," Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul's) said. "We now have a benchmark against which to gauge our success in our real goal: to end homelessness."
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- The estimated minimum number of homeless people in Toronto that night was 5,052. Of this, the vast majority (more than 72 percent) spent the night in a homeless shelter
- An estimated minimum of 818 spent the night on the street - 575 in the downtown core, but with large numbers also in Etobicoke, Scarborough, and North York
- 275 homeless people were in health and treatment facilities
- 130 people from Toronto courts with no fixed address were in correctional facilities
- The remainder were in shelters for abused women
- While the majority of homeless individuals outdoors were in the central core of the city,30 percent were outside the central core.
- Aboriginal people constituted 16 percent of all people surveyed. Amongst the outdoor population, Aboriginal people constituted 26 percent of the homeless population. Aboriginal people were homeless longer as well - on average 5.3 years compared to 3.1 years of non- Aboriginal people.
- The top five responses to what would help an individual find housing were:
- Help finding an affordable place
- More money
- Transportation to see apartments
- Help with housing applications
- Help getting identification
- Only 37 percent of individuals surveyed reported that they were on a waiting list for housing.
- Individuals who were homeless the longest identified harm reduction programs, detox, alcohol/drug treatment, help with mental health and help addressing health needs as services that would help them find housing.
- While people in corrections were the second highest group to identify a desire to have permanent housing (96 percent), they were the lowest group proportionally to be on a waiting list for housing (22 percent). Of all groups surveyed indoors, they were the group most likely to have slept outdoors one or more nights in the six months prior to their incarceration. Moreover, 18 percent of all individuals surveyed (excluding those surveyed while incarcerated) had had an interaction with corrections in the previous six months.
- Drop-ins are the most frequently used service by homeless individuals.
- There is considerable interaction between homeless individuals and health care systems: 51 percent had used a health clinic, 50 percent had used a hospital and 19 percent had used an ambulance in the last six months.
- With the exception of the age group 61-65, the older an individual is, the longer they
have been homeless.