‘Dashboard’ to track use of homeless shelters
Figures show number of new users steadily increasing each month
New data that allows the city of Toronto to more closely track the number of homeless people accessing the shelter system shows a steady increase in the amount of new users per month.
This week the city released a new online “dashboard” that contains data showing how homeless people “flow” — enter and exit — through the shelter system over time.
The goal of the dashboard is to spot trends in shelter use and be able to analyze them and provide solutions to the issues or problems identified, the city said. Another goal is ensuring use of the shelter system by homeless people is more transparent to researchers and the public.
One data set includes figures showing newly identified users who entered the system from January of last year over a 12month period.
The graphic shows that although there were 900 newly identified users in January 2020, that number had then trailed off by mid-May to 390 people.
Laural Raine, a director with the city’s shelter, support and housing administration (SSHA), said the drop off was probably attributable to a decrease in potential shelter users who were refugees that couldn’t come to Canada due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions.
However, despite that, by January of this year the number of new shelter users had shot back up, with a total of 647 new people occupying a bed that month.
“That’s 647 people in January who had never used the shelter system before, who were newly homeless. It just shows you the issues we are facing in Toronto and the reason why we need to take some decisive action,” Mary-Anne Bedard, the general manager of SSHA, said.
People become new users for various reasons including loss of housing due to affordability issues, family breakup, job loss, mental health crises and other issues, Raine said.
To develop the dashboard, the city worked closely with the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness, a group of community providers assembled under a single organization focused on eradicating homelessness.
Mark Aston, chair of the alliance, said he believes the rise in new users can be attributed to the onset of colder weather, and the impacts of job losses amid the economic slowdown caused by COVID-19.
He credited the dashboard with providing transparency and a new way to analyze data around shelter use that will lead to steps to act on the findings.
“The data and website will lead to evidence-based solutions. It’s a major step forward,” Aston said.
Over the course of 2020 a total of 7,617 new individuals entered the shelter system, according to the dashboard.
Prior to the dashboard the city relied on its Street Needs Assessment survey, a one-night snapshot conducted every two years, where homeless people in shelters and on the street are counted.
Despite the increases in new users, the overall use of the shelter system by homeless people has remained fairly steady in the past year, around 7,600 to 7,800 individuals at the end of each month since June. These figures take in long-term “chronic users” and anyone who has used any of the city’s overnight services — including a shelter, 24-hour respite or warming centre — in the last three months at least once.
Data in the portal also includes people who have moved to permanent housing, left permanent housing to return to the shelter system, the age and gender of individuals, the number of people entering and exiting the shelter system each month (1,156 entered and 1,006 exited in January) and more.