Homelessness spikes while feds throw cash at a broken system
Canada's homelessness crisis soars despite $561 million in federal funding as shelters overflow and the government fails to address root causes.
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The number of Canadians forced into homeless shelters shot up 12 percent in a single year, according to a Department of Infrastructure and Housing “Homelessness Snapshot” that conveniently forgets to explain why.
Homeless count is up 12% year over year says @HICC_ca briefing note though feds budgeted $561M a year to aid the homeless: "Shelter system capacity grew by almost 13%." https://t.co/CG8KiIiK34 #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/36OQKLfNwD
— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) March 25, 2025
“In 2023, an estimated 118,329 people experienced homelessness in an emergency shelter, compared to 105,655 in 2022,” it reads.
Despite over half a billion dollars budgeted to help curb the homelessness crisis, “The overall permanent emergency shelter system capacity grew by almost 13% between 2022 and 2023,” said the note. “In 2023, there were 20,676 permanent beds compared to 18,336 beds in 2022,” as first reported by Blacklock’s.
Chronic homelessness ticked up, too, from 31,476 to 32,660. Meanwhile, the feds are tossing $561 million a year at the crisis like it’s pocket change, with people still packed in shelters like sardines.
The Budget Office admitted last May that despite all this cash, homelessness continued to balloon 20 percent since 2018, even though nominal spending has increased by nearly 400% since Trudeau’s tenure.
“We estimate that achieving a 50% reduction in chronic homelessness would require an additional $3.5 billion per year, approximately a 7-fold increase in funding over the National Housing Strategy average,” reads the PBO report on federal spending.
StatsCan isn’t much help either — their 2023 Review of Canadian Homelessness Data pegged shelter users at a laughable 9,275 based on Census numbers, admitting it’s a terrible tool for the job since those struggling with homelessness don’t exactly leave forwarding addresses, and surveys miss them entirely.
Canada is left with a half-billion-dollar band-aid, a growing crisis, and a government too lazy — or too incompetent — to figure out what’s really driving this mess.
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-03-25 21:19:43 -0400I notice that conservatives generally want to cut spending whereas leftists just toss our money at the problem.It’s time we stop listening to the spenders and listen to those who want to incentivize people to change their ways. Many street people are the result of the Liberals’ idiotic policies.
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Crude Sausage commented 2025-03-25 14:45:31 -0400How do you know that a politician you want to vote for will do nothing to improve the system? Easy, he or she tells people that they will spend more money. Trust the politician who says that they will change something that doesn’t work, not the one who will throw more money at it.
