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Home Blog Housing Controversial TO street needs assessment reports sharp drop in street homelessness

Michael Shapcott

Controversial TO street needs assessment reports sharp drop in street homelessness

Toronto’s latest street needs assessment (released today) shows that the number of street homeless has dropped by half, while the number of sheltered homeless has risen. The methodology behind the count is controversial, as the Wellesley Institute has noted. There are plenty of more reliable studies of the real needs of people who are homeless or precariously housed. The latest assessment ignores the single biggest component of the homeless population – the hidden homeless (couch-surfers). Toronto’s affordable housing waiting list is at an all-time high, and the number of people housed in March of 2010 is way down from last year. The Street Health Report, supported by the Wellesley Institute, provides a detailed review of the health status of people who are homeless.

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Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott is Director, Affordable Housing and Social Innovation at Wellesley Institute. Michael has worked extensively in Toronto, in many parts of Canada, nationally and internationally on social innovation, the non-profit sector, civic engagement, housing and housing rights, poverty, social exclusion, urban health and health equity. He is recognized as one of Canada’s leading community-based housing and homelessness experts. He is currently on secondment to the Princes' Charities Canada.

Acknowledgement of Traditional Land

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Revised by the Ceremonial Committee at the University of Toronto Office of Indigenous Initiatives in April 2021.