New policy brief: Ontario’s homelessness crisis deepens as provincial spending stagnates
A new policy brief from Maytree warns that Ontario’s homelessness crisis is deepening while provincial spending remains stagnant. Chronic homelessness has nearly doubled in two years, while 2024-25 provincial spending remains below the real average of the past decade. Most provincial funding continues to go toward emergency shelters rather than long-term solutions like deeply affordable housing.
The policy brief, Provincial spending on housing and homelessness in Ontario, finds that:
- In 2024, chronic homelessness has nearly doubled over two years, reaching 41,512 people.
- An estimated 81,515 Ontarians experienced homelessness—a 25% increase in two years.
- After adjusting for inflation, Ontario’s spending on housing and homelessness is largely unchanged from a decade ago.
- Municipalities and the federal government have increased their contributions, while the provincial share of funding has declined.
- The Ontario government’s recent $44.5 million investment is just 4% of what is needed annually to end chronic homelessness.
“We know how to end chronic homelessness: build deeply affordable, non-market housing with wraparound supports,” said Alexi White, Director of Systems Change at Maytree. “But Ontario is currently spending half of what’s needed to fix the problem.”
Maytree is calling on all political parties to commit an additional $11 billion over the next decade—starting with doubling housing investment to $1.4 billion in 2025-26—to build 75,000 new supportive and affordable housing units.