Canada-wide research project examines need for better data on homelessness
Posted February 3, 2023 11:24 am.
In a Canada-wide research project, a team at Lawson Health Research Institute is hosting forums to better understand homelessness.
While research has found the number of Canadians experiencing homelessness has grown across the country during the pandemic, Dr. Cheryl Forchuk, a researcher at Lawson Health Research Institute says those experiencing homelessness in Alberta are faced with an even bigger hurdle.
“It’s the only province that we found where there is absolutely no provincial income support once you become homeless,” she says. “So instead of not having simply the housing portion removed, there’s zero dollars. So not enough to buy a sandwich, absolutely no money which makes it incredibly hard for Albertans who experience homelessness to get out of homelessness. It forces them into very vulnerable situations in order to have their basic needs met.”
However, in a statement, Hunter Baril, press secretary for Seniors, Community and Social Services says you do not need a permanent address to receive income support.
“We remain focussed on ensuring Albertans are able to access supports without needing a permanent address. Individuals who utilize shelters have been able to receive income support through the location of the shelter. It is through the Service Hub model that homeless Albertans get connected with supports such as Income Support and other financial benefits.”
The federal government estimates 235,000 Canadians are homeless, a number Forchuk believes is low due to inadequate data in small, rural communities and says support services will be underfunded without accurate numbers.
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“Even from the start, people realize that the rural data is missing and that and that truly is the largest piece of missing data,” she says.
Forchuk hopes the study can help develop more accurate ways to collect homeless numbers in Canada, including using provincial health records.
“We look at things that would put people at risk of the algorithm. For example, they have the address of a shelter as the home, no fixed address written on their health record, frequent changes of the address so it often does relate to some information commonly collected in a healthcare record anyway but that would indicate that the person’s homeless.”
“We’re hoping if we can get this algorithm to work nationally, then we will not have a need for the point-in-time counts but we’re not there yet. But we’re hoping by having not only Health Data but other data that we can pull into that, we would have more accurate information and also real-time information.”
“The point-in-time counts usually take place every other year, so it doesn’t allow you to see rapidly changing situations. By using health data, in two weeks we could see what was the risk are for people experiencing homelessness. You can’t do that with a point-in-time count.”
Since January 2021, the team has collected data from 28 communities, large and small, across Canada that are experiencing homelessness challenges. Preliminary data was presented at the Edmonton forum on Thursday.
“Our ultimate goal is to gather the most accurate numbers of people experiencing homelessness across the country so we can collectively work together towards solutions,” says Forchuk.
