On any given night, an average of 35,000 Canadians are homeless. Over the course of a year, 235,000 men, women, and adolescents have no safe bed. Twenty percent are visible, sleeping on park benches and heating grates. The rest are hidden: couch-surfing, in a hospital, in jail, sleeping in a car, or moving from one emergency shelter to the next.
Indigenous Canadians, individuals with disabilities and mental health and addictions issues, as well as gay, lesbian, and transgender youth are overrepresented in the homeless population. So are adolescents who have aged out of the child welfare system, men with criminal records, and women living in fear of violence.
The city with the largest percentage of homeless residents is Red Deer, Alberta. Measured...
Carol Goar was a columnist at the Toronto Star for thirty years, where she focused on poverty, homelessness, and the fraying social fabric. She retired in 2016 and moved to Paris, Ontario.
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