Homelessness in Canada
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Homelessness in Canada is viewed as a serious social problem. Canada is viewed by many as having far too high a number of homeless people, with some of the highest per capita rates of any developed nation. For instance, Canada has about 200,000 homeless, while the United States with nine times Canada's population has only 750,000.
Homelessness is an especially severe problem in Canada due to the country's cold climate. Each year there are cases in Canada's larger cities with cold climates (such as Toronto and Montreal) of homeless people freezing to death.
Any estimate of the number of homeless is difficult as, by nature, the population is transient and leaves few records. Estimates thus range from 100,000 to 250,000. How one defines homelessness is also difficult, and most estimates count not only those who live on the streets and in shelters, but those who live in housing that does not meet basic standards.
Canada has an extensive network of food banks and soup kitchens so that it is quite rare for individuals to go hungry. There is no comparable network for shelter, however. Toronto, for instance has only 5000 beds in shelters for an estimated homeless population of 50,000 in that city.
Over the last two decades the face of homelessness in Canada has changed substantially. In the early 1980s the homeless population was mostly made up of older men the majority of which had mental health problems or were alcoholics. Today younger men and children make up a large segment of the homeless population. Less than 20% of the homeless have drug or alcohol abuse problems. Almost half of all homeless people have jobs. This change has been attributed to changing economic circumstances that have seen minimum wage jobs no longer be able to pay for accommodation in some of Canada's cities. The federal government has not built subsidized housing since the early 1990s and families and the poor who used to take advantage of these services are now forced to live on the streets.
The rise in homelessness has led to a corresponding increase in demands for better treatment of the poor. In 2000 a near riot broke out at Queen's Park between police and members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
The growing numbers of homeless have also led to calls to make homeless related activities illegal, such as panhandling and window washing.
One factor that has remained is the ethnic makeup of the homeless with a high proportion belonging to First Nations and other ethnic minorities.
Bibliography
- Jack Layton, Homelessness: The Making and Unmaking of a Crisis ISBN 0140288880