January 2000

There are three types of homelessness. The first are people who are situationally homeless which means that their state of being without a home is temporary and can be resolved as a specific situation in their life is dealt with. The second group is periodically homeless. These people have fairly disadvantaged lives, which leaves them at constant risk of becoming homeless. The final group of people who are homeless are chronically homeless. These people have often spent a great deal of their life on the streets and have many issues that impede their ability to reconnect to their communities.

Homelessness and poverty are relentlessly intertwined. People who are homeless are also very poor. What is really frightening about this fact is that poverty is on the increase in our community. In Hamilton-Wentworth, our poverty rate has increased from 17.4% in 1991, to 21.9% in 1996 (Statistics Canada, 1991 and 1996 census). In real numbers, this means that 24,025 more people have fallen into poverty over the last five years, and that the subsequent risk of homelessness for these people has increased.

For people living in poverty, the barrier to finding affordable housing has less to do with the cost of rental accommodation than it has to do with the level of income. At some point, it does not matter how affordable housing is; if your income is too low, it is still unaffordable. This is especially true for people trying to survive on social assistance. Table 1 shows that shelter allowances in 1999 fall far below the average rent of units in the City of Hamilton. Only two people living in a one-bedroom apartment come close to having enough money.

The number of vacant units also affects housing availability. A vacancy rate (% of all rental units currently unoccupied) of 3% provides a healthy competitive market, however, the variation in the vacancy rate across the city restricts tenants choices in looking for housing. In the past year, the rental housing market has tightened dramatically. The City of Hamilton vacancy rate has dropped from 4.1% to 2.2%, while the Hamilton CMA (Census Metropolitan Area) (which includes Burlington and Grimsby) dropped from 3.2% to 1.9%.

One of the few ways we have to count people who are homeless is by looking at emergency shelter usage. On a cautionary note however, this usage represents only the barest minimum numbers of people who are homeless. It does not capture those people who are doubled up with friends or family, those living in vacant buildings and outdoor spaces, or people who are camping out in tents in backyards and campgrounds.

1998. A study on homelessness done in 1995, counted 160 people who used similar services . (Homelessness and Mental Illness in the Hamilton- Wentworth Region. Health of the Public Project, 1995)

Food banks are struggling to have the food necessary to meet the needs of approximately 11,000 people who come asking for help each month.

Foodbanks find it difficult, if not impossible, to provide fresh fruit, vegetables, frozen foods and milk products. They are also limited by what people have at home to make use of the food they are given. Many people do not own stoves to prepare food. This becomes even more problematic for recent immigrants and refugees who are unable to get food with which they are familiar. Oftentimes, they don't know how to cook the Canadian food that they are given at the foodbanks.

Soup kitchens and van meals provided approximately 19,000 meals in March of this year. Some have experienced tremendous increase in the number of meals they provide. The Wesley Centre, as one example, served 43,000 meals in 1997 and by 1998 had served 52,000.

Homelessness is not an issue that can be studied in isolation. There is not one cause of homelessness. There are many. Homelessness is one of the saddest indicators of an unhealthy society and community. As homelessness increases, the health and well-being of our city and Region declines. This issue concerns us all.