NORTHERN ONTARIO - A new report says homelessness has worsened across the province in recent years but Northern Ontario communities, including Timmins, are experiencing rates of chronic homelessness that are four times the provincial average.
Released on Thursday, Municipalities Under Pressure: The Human and Financial Cost of Ontario's Homelessness Crisis is a 136-page report commissioned by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, which represents more than 440 municipalities across the province.
For Northern Ontario, known homelessness has surged by 204 per cent since 2016, increasing from 1,771 people to 5,377 in 2024. That growth is four times the provincial average and underscores the severe shortage of long-term housing and other support systems in the north.
"While northern regions account for a smaller share of Ontario’s overall population, the scale of the north’s proportion of homelessness represents a deepening crisis in the north. Unique challenges, such as limited access to critical supports, geographic isolation, fewer housing options, and an inadequate transportation infrastructure, have exacerbated the issue," the report said.
Some local leaders have already begun responding to the report.
“The impacts on our communities have been devastating. Municipalities cannot face this alone. We need all orders of government to step up and make real commitments to end chronic homelessness across the province. We need decisive action, now," said Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau, who is also the Northern Ontario Service Deliverers Association (NOSDA) chair, in a news release.
Homelessness in Ontario could double in the next decade without significant intervention, the report states, and could reach nearly 300,000 people in the case of an economic downturn.
When considering Indigenous members of the community, the crisis is even more acute. Indigenous people make up nearly 45 per cent of those experiencing chronic homelessness in northern Ontario and the rate is even higher in some communities.
The report says an investment of $11 billion over 10 years is needed to eliminate chronic homelessness across the province.
"I don't think there's anybody who doesn't have sticker shock when you look at $11 billion over 10 years, but the reality is you're either going to pay for it now or we're going to pay for it later," said Karen Redman, chair of Waterloo Region and chair of Mayor's and Regional Chairs of Ontario (MARCO) during a presentation to the media on Thursday.
The report says in 2024 more than 80,000 people are known to be homeless in Ontario. That figure is more than 25 per cent higher than it was just two years earlier in 2022.
Looking at data for the whole province, 4,418 Indigenous people were reported as chronically homeless in 2024 — representing more than 10 per cent of total cases in Ontario, despite Indigenous people making up fewer than 3 per cent of the overall population.
The report notes that recent investments in social infrastructure in northern Ontario have led to better data collection and may have brought more attention to the issue.
"Some of the increase in homelessness in the north may be a matter of more accurate enumeration. However, it is more likely that the change reflects an actual rise in homelessness in Northern Ontario," the report said.
