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Homelessness Update

OSUM Conference 2026

May 1, 2026

Michael Jacek, Senior Advisor

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Report 2025

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Municipalities Under Pressure One Year Later:

An Update on the Human and Financial Cost of Ontario’s Homelessness Crisis

January 2026

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Homelessness increased again in 2025

84,973 people experienced known homelessness in Ontario, an 8% increase from 2024.
Rate of homelessness increasing rapidly in northern and rural communities - 37% in the North and 30% in rural Ontario.
Indigenous people represent approximately 2.9% of Ontario’s population but 13.2% of people experiencing homelessness.

Estimated number of people experiencing homelessness in Ontario, 2018–2025

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More people are homeless for longer

45,111 people experienced chronic homelessness in 2025.
Represents 53% of all known homelessness.
Chronic homelessness more than doubled since 2021.

Estimated number of people experiencing chronic homelessness compared to total population experiencing homelessness, Ontario, 2018–2025

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The Growing homelessness crisis

Under steady economic growth, homelessness will double by 2035, if actions aren't taken now.
It will still increase even if there is an economic upturn.
It could triple in an economic downturn to almost 300, 000 people.

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Investment has increased alongside homelessness

Over $4.0 billion in housing and homelessness funding in 2025.

Funding has more than doubled since 2018.

By 2025, municipalities account for roughly half of all combined housing and homelessness funding.

Funding trends for homelessness and housing programs by source, Ontario, 2018–2025

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Investment in the Root Causes

AMO has long called for investments in the root causes of homelessness, including:

improvements to income security;
investing in community mental health and addictions supports; and
increasing access to deeply affordable housing.

We cannot address this crisis if

more people are becoming homeless

than we are able to help.

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AMO’s Advocacy

In the short-term AMO is calling on the Province to work with federal partners to house the more than 40,000 Ontarians who are already chronically homeless, including with:

Investments in Deeply Affordable Housing
Build Canada Homes Investments in Supportive & Transitional Housing
National Housing Strategy Renewal
Collaboration Between All Orders of Government.

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In the short-term AMO is calling on the province to work with federal partners to house the more than 40,000 Ontarians

who are already chronically homeless.

Investing in deeply affordable housing by providing $11 billion over 10 years to end chronic homelessness through investments in homelessness prevention and building more than 75,000 deeply affordable and supportive housing units.

• On Build Canada Homes, securing both federal and provincial funding supportive and transitional housing.

National Housing Strategy – both federal and provincial governments public committed to an extension; goal to ensure that Ontario’s municipal priorities are accounted for in federal-provincial anteriorizations for a new agreement.
Collaboration Between All Orders of Government by working together to ensure our homelessness and housing dollars are

having the biggest impact, including exploring opportunities to improve data coordination, connect services, and measure outcomes.

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What OSUM Members Can Do

Review the full report on the AMO website.
Learn more about your local situation and the profile of homelessness from the municipal service manager.
Talk to MPPs and MPs about the situation, aligning with AMO key messaging outlined in the 2-page summary document.
Council resolutions.
Correspondence to the government.
Engage media for local coverage of the issue.
Use social media with AMO’s resources online.

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Questions?

Michael Jacek

mjacek@amo.on.ca

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