Not enough data on homelessness in small communities, researchers say

There is a major lack of data on how homelessness affects small communities across Canada, researchers say.

A national forum was held in Charlottetown on Monday to discuss the issues surrounding the country’s homeless population. The forum was organized by Lawson Health Research Institute, a national research group.

The group says most of the homelessness data comes from major urban centers such as Toronto and Montreal. Researchers hope that with the right data, service providers in places like PEI can tap into more government funding.

“You don’t get resources for the homeless population because they’re not in the numbers,” said Cheryl Forchuk, assistant scientific director at Lawson.

“With sufficient numbers, we get a better match with sufficient funding.”

So far, in partnership with Western University, Lawson has interviewed 400 people across the country who are homeless.

“I certainly hope that having better numbers will provide the ammunition for more resources,” Forchuk said.

“I also hope to be able to break down those numbers into whose homeless people we have appropriate services. For example, if you know the increase is youth, you have youth-specific services.”

‘No simple answer’

There are no hard numbers on how many islanders are currently homeless.

In 2021, the John Howard Society released figures on PEI’s homeless population. The nonprofit group estimated that at least 147 islanders were homeless — a 71 percent increase compared to 2018 estimates.

“Homelessness is a very complex subject,” said Conor Mullin, president of the John Howard Society of PEI.

“But… that solution starts with bringing together everyone who has an interest in and works in this field.”

The biggest problem facing people in precarious housing situations across the country is a lack of affordable housing and the need to increase income support, Forchuk said.

Build affordable housing

“Think about someone who has old age insurance, county income support, county disability, and you think about the statewide county income support that usually runs around $600 a month,” she said.

“If someone has $600 a month, what kind of housing can anyone actually afford here? Probably not an apartment. Could they even rent a room?”

The Charlottetown City Council passed a resolution last week to form a team to tackle homeless camps.

There is little detail about who gets to form that group and how it will work. But building affordable housing must be part of the plan, Mayor Philip Brown said.

“We have an affordable housing tax incentive to encourage all levels of government, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and NGOs to build more public housing, social housing, affordable housing and subsidized housing,” he said.

Forchuk said as homelessness grows on PEI, more and more people know someone who is on the verge of or already experiencing homelessness.

She said she hopes this leads people to take a more compassionate approach to helping the displaced population.

The Lawson research group aims to complete data collection by March.