HERE - Calgary Homeless Foundation

WHO ARE THE
HOMELESS?
NUMBERS, TRENDS AND CHARACTERISTICS
Ron Kneebone
The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary
Meaghan Bell
Calgary Homeless Foundation
Nicole Jackson
Calgary Homeless Foundation
Ali Jadidzadeh
University of Calgary
Thanks to the Calgary Drop-in and Rehab Centre Society for providing us with access to data
and to Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for funding.
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POINT IN TIME COUNTS SINCE 1992
4,000
3,601
Number of Homeless
3,500
3,157
3,000
2,397
2,500
2,000
1,737
1,296
1,500
988
1,000
500
447 461
615
0
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3,576 3,533 3,531
3,190
WHERE THE HOMELESS ARE FOUND
6%
6%
Emergency shelter
Short-term
supportive housing
35%
54%
Public Systems
Rough Sleeping
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ETHNICITY OF THE HOMELESS
5%
17%
Caucasion
Aboriginal
Other
20%
59%
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Unknown
AGE OF THE HOMELESS
2%
4%
2%
7%
10%
Children
Youth
Young adults
Working age
Seniors
Unknown
75%
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DATA
Date
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2009-14
Unique IDs
13,852
9,551
9,327
10,280
11,586
5,672
32,972
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PATTERNS OF SHELTER STAYS
Few Episodes
Many Episodes
Short Stays per
episode
Transitional
(86%)
Episodic
(12%)
Long Stays per
episode
Chronic
(1.6%)
--
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SHELTER STAYS BY SHELTER USER
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DEMOGRAPHICS OF SHELTER USERS
Unique Clients
Gender (%):
Male
Female
Average Age
Age Groups (%):
Youth (16 - 19 years)
Young adult (20 - 39 years)
Middle age (40 - 59 years)
Senior (60 years and more)
Ethnicity (%):
Caucasian
Aboriginal
Other
Transitional
28,344
Episodic
4,097
Chronic
531
82.6
17.4
38.30
85.5
14.5
40.53
90.6
9.4
48.03
4.0
50.2
41.2
4.3
1.7
41.9
52.5
3.9
0.0
19.4
69.5
11.1
68.7
18.8
12.5
64.7
25.2
10.1
81.2
9.8
9.0
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IMPLICATIONS
• The vast majority of adults using emergency shelters
use them very infrequently and for only short stays
• Establishing permanent, supportive housing for a
relatively small number of people would free up 1/3 of
all adult emergency shelter beds
• Permanent supportive housing is expensive but so too
is maintaining shelter beds and the increased costs to
the health care and justice systems stemming from
homelessness
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EXAMPLES OF CURRENT EFFORTS
• Coordinated Access and Assessment
• Improves targeting of program interventions
• RESOLVE
• Collaborative partnership of 9 social agencies to raise $120
million to build affordable, supportive housing for 3,000
people
• Calgary Homeless Foundation and RESOLVE
• Raising $45 million to build 8 permanent supportive housing
buildings (25 -30 units each) for chronically homeless
• Joint effort of CHF, Government of Alberta and home builders
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FUTURE EFFORTS
• At the heart of Calgary’s homelessness problem is a
lack of affordable housing
• Solving that problem requires engaging the private
sector; efforts that require consideration of
• Tax incentives
• Zoning changes
• Housing regulations.
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