Homelessness in Waterloo Region

Understanding Homelessness in Waterloo Backgrounder Report 1999

Understanding Homelessness in Waterloo Region was published in June, 1999. This report demonstrated the extent of the homelessness crisis in Waterloo Region. In February 2000, Opening Doors: A Community Action Forum was held.

You can download the executive summary of the report or the appendices summary from the Social Planning Council of Cambridge and North Dumfries. Hard copies are also available for purchase. The full report contains a literature review, contextual background, findings from interview, survey results, conclusions and next steps. The appendices set out the terms of reference of the study, an annotated bibliography, and details from qualitative interviews, agencies histories, shelter resident survey, interviews and focus groups and street estimates.

"Understanding Homelessness in Waterloo Region"

There has been much attention given to the topic of homelessness recently. It has been discussed on TV, on radio, in newspapers and magazines. There is so much talk that one wonders whether homelessness is in fact a problem here, or whether it's simply perceived to be due to the overwhelming media attention.

One fact is for sure; as of the end of 1998, no co-ordinated statistics or information on homelessness in Waterloo Region were available. At the same time, one of the most frequently asked questions by residents of the Region is whether there is any affordable housing available. Furthermore, agency staff working with the homeless believe the numbers of people who are having difficulty finding and keeping housing are growing.

And so, the idea for a study on homelessness was conceived by three agencies in Waterloo Region. They are: The Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo, The Social Planning Council of Cambridge and North Dumfries, and The Waterloo Region - Wellington-Dufferin District Health Council. Together these agencies tackled the questions surrounding homelessness in Waterloo Region: specifically, how many people are homeless and, critically, why they are homeless.

We wanted to learn about homelessness from people who are homeless, from people who are at-risk-of-homelessness, and from people who work with others struggling with homelessness. An Advisory Group including all these kinds of people, as well as Regional government staff, was set up. They gave us advice as we developed our research plan, carried it out, and began to draw conclusions from our findings.

We talked with 77 individuals who have had experience with homelessness or are close to being homeless. We gave a survey to all residents of 15 emergency and transitional shelters in the Region from March 1 to April 30, 1999. Not all residents completed the survey. Fifty-two staff from the agencies who assist people who struggle with housing issues in Waterloo Region were interviewed Agency staff were asked to give us their data on numbers of people they have helped in the last five years. An attempt was made to count the number of people we could see sleeping in public places in the Region. Many different methods were used to better understand homelessness in Waterloo Region.

We learned that there is no agreement on what it means to be "homeless" in Waterloo Region. Everyone defines it differently. There is a need for agreement on a definition of homelessness by everyone who experiences homelessness or helps those who are homeless in Waterloo Region.

We learned that right now there are about 172 people who sleep in shelters on any one night in Waterloo Region. From this, we worked out that there are probably about 1500 - 2000 people who are homeless in Waterloo Region in one year, which means that between 3 and 5 of every 1000 people in Waterloo Region are or will be homeless in one year. This number is less than Toronto, as expected, but it is more than the number of homeless people in Guelph. There are many different kinds of shelters in the Region, but only two large general shelters, one for men, one for women. Both of these shelters are in downtown Kitchener and both nearly always have more people than they have proper beds for (they must put some people on cots and mattresses). They always have people from Cambridge and the rural parts of the Region staying there too.

There are a lot more people using shelters now than 5 years ago in the Region, and the people who use them are staying longer than they used to. If the people who stay a long time in shelters could get housing, then there would be a lot fewer people in shelters.

There are more shelter beds for women than for men in Waterloo Region, but, even so, there are not enough beds for all the women who need one.

Many more men staying in shelters agreed to complete the survey than the women. From those who completed the survey, we found that they have these characteristics (probably more accurate about the men than the women):

• They are 13 - 79 years old, with an average age of 32;

• Most are single (83%), with no dependants;

• Most have lived in the Region for at least 4 years in their lives, but one-quarter say they are staying in a shelter because they are new to the area;

• 14% are employed;

• There are proportionately more Aboriginals and Blacks in shelters than in the rest of the population in the Region;

• Most shelter residents (63%) have less than a grade 12 education, but some shelter residents have a university degree;

• 66% of people who stay in shelters say they never use drugs;

• 37% of people who stay in shelters say they never use alcohol;

• Almost one-half said that they are in shelters mostly because of trouble in their family relationships.

We spent several nights looking (we could not look everywhere because of safety concerns) for people sleeping in public places in Cambridge and Kitchener-Waterloo, using street youth as guides. We also asked police for their advice on where to look. Both the youth and the police agreed on the same places. We saw fewer people sleeping in public places than expected.

We were told that the main events that result in a person being homeless were:

• breakdown in close relationships;

• physical and mental health issues;

• inadequate income (both social assistance and employment);

• insufficient housing;

• limited choices.

We were told that the main structures and policies that make things worse for homeless people include:

• policies and recent changes in social assistance;

• policies and recent changes in subsidized housing;

• policies and recent changes in helping people with mental health problems;

• decreases in funding for agencies;

• the lack of services in Cambridge.

We found out that services are helpful to the homeless if they are easily available, provide information, connections, outreach and support, and treat people with respect.

We found that many do believe that people in Waterloo Region are aware that there is a problem with homelessness here, and that people do want to help and make a real difference. There is compassion in the Region. People who have experience with homelessness gave many suggestions on how the problem could be fixed.

The purpose of this study was to understand homelessness in Waterloo Region.

We believe that there are three main pieces to the growing problem of homelessness:

• not enough income,

• not enough housing

• not enough community support services.

Now that we have a better understanding of homelessness, we hope that many people in our community will take leadership and action in addressing homelessness in Waterloo Region. The two Social Planning Councils and the District Health Council believe that this report will be a catalyst for action.