PBO finds homelessness rose 20 per cent under Liberals’ plan

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OTTAWA — Despite $443 million in new annual spending aimed to reduce homelessness the number of people without a roof over their head has grown by 20 per cent in Canada, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

The new $443 million was a 374 per cent increase compared to prior spending, but it doesn’t appear to be having the desired effect.

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“In the latest point in time count published by Infrastructure Canada, the number of homeless people had increased by 20 per cent relative to 2018 reaching 34,270, and we estimate that the number of chronically homeless people had increased by 38 per cent relative to 2018.”

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The 20 per cent figure is part of “point in time” counts done across the country that aim to get a rough estimate of the number of people without permanent shelter.

The PBO released a study of the government’s homelessness efforts on Wednesday morning after the government launched a new program called Reaching Home in 2018, as part of the Liberals’ broader housing strategy.

The overall goal of the Reaching Home plan was to reduce chronic homelessness, which is defined as someone who has been without a home for at least six months, by 50 per cent. The PBO found the program is likely helping 6,000 people stay off the streets, but to actually hit the government’s target they would have to spend much more.

“The best available evidence suggests that homelessness has increased in spite of Reaching Home and, as a result, the program is not on track to meet its targets with respect to reducing homelessness,” the PBO report reads. “We estimate that achieving a 50 per cent reduction in chronic homelessness would require an additional $3.5 billion per year, approximately a seven-fold increase in funding,” the PBO report.

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Housing Minister Sean Fraser said the government’s response goes beyond the Reaching Home plan, but it’s clear there is work to do.

“The solution to the challenges we’re facing around homelessness is not going to be achieved simply by supporting community initiatives,” he said. “To address them you have to go upstream, without the affordable housing stock to provide a roof over the heads for everyone in this country, we will never end homelessness.”

During question period, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asked how the government had managed to spend so much on homelessness program and achieve such poor results.

“If it costs a half a billion dollars for him to drive up homelessness, how much would it cost to drive it down?”

The PBO found that the program had paid for 17,849 people to find housing placements and for an additional 5,399 people to find emergency housing.

The review also found that the federal government is a small part of the solution. Prior to the Liberals coming to power Ottawa was responsible for about seven per cent of the money spent on reducing homelessness, a number that rose only to 14 per cent with all the new money. Most of the money spent on reducing homelessness was spent by provincial and municipal governments.

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They also found that there is no one-size fits all approach with some people who get federal help falling back into a life on the streets, and others who don’t get the help finding their own way off the street.

“Housing placements do not reduce future homelessness on a one-for-one basis because some of the homeless people placed in stable housing would have found housing anyways and some people placed in stable housing return to homelessness,” reads the report.

National Post
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