Hastings County would need $23M more a year to end chronic homelessness: CAO

Hastings County would need a further $23 million per year to create more supportive, transitional, and social housing, chief administrative officer Connor Dorey says.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) on Tuesday released a report on AMO-led research into homelessness in the province.

It stated a further $11 billion of investment over 10 years in Ontario “to boost the supply of supportive, transitional and community housing and increase prevention programs could end chronic homelessness in Ontario.”

“It’s $23 million that’s needed each year as an increase to Hastings County,” the county’s Dorey said Wednesday in Belleville. He spoke during the monthly meeting of the county’s joint community and human services committee, which oversees housing and homelessness programs.

Dorey said the local figure could be calculated using the association’s projection of $1.1 billion per year across the province and dividing it among the province’s 47 designated service members overseeing homelessness.

The county, which is a service manager, receives $6.1 million per year through Ontario’s Homelessness Prevention Program, “so that shows a gap there,” he said.

Dorey noted the county also receives the $6.3 million per year for three years from Ontario for the Homelessness Addiction and Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub program.

Further funds also reach local agencies directly and don’t flow through the county, Dorey said.

That includes funds for such programs as supportive and transitional housing, he said.

There is also federal funding provided to the county to allocate to homelessness work in Belleville.

Belleville Coun. Paul Carr asked how much is needed “to really, truly solve the homelessness crisis.” He said having that number would help in advocating for more funding from senior levels of government.

That prompted Dorey’s reference to the new report. He said county staff had not made their own calculations beyond breaking down the AMO’s estimate of $11 billion, which he said “is a good indicator of what’s needed across the province.”

Ontario homelessness is increasing

“To largely solve the challenge of homeless encampments, an estimated additional $2 billion over 8 years is needed,” the AMO report stated.

It reported there were 85,000 unhoused people in Ontario in 2025. Of those, 20,000 of them were children and youth. There were almost 2,000 encampments.

More than half of those people are experiencing chronic homelessness: periods of six months or longer.

The data also show northern and rural regions are driving the growth in homelessness.

Tweed Mayor Don DeGenova called the increase in those areas “absolutely ridiculous.” He and other municipal leaders continue to say Premier Doug Ford’s government must do more to address the problem.

In the last year alone, homelessness increased by 37 per cent in northern Ontario and by 31 per cent in mostly rural communities. Homelessness in the north has increased by a staggering 117 per cent since 2021.

“Something’s clearly broken,” AMO executive director Lindsay Jones said of researchers’ findings.

“I think we’re seeing, again, the impact of pretty significant underinvestments over years in the social systems that provide support, like income security, like mental health and addictions and affordable housing.”

“I do think that a big part of the story is Indigenous homelessness,” Jones said.

Officials of the local HART Hub have said there is a disproportionate number of Indigenous people in the area’s unhoused population.

“This year we’re seeing around a 25 per cent increase in what we’re measuring in terms of Indigenous homelessness. So it’s a really significant problem.”

The number of Indigenous people without a home has increased to 11,000 in 2025, up from 6,100 in 2021, the data shows.

Homelessness will continue to get worse under steady economic conditions until 2035, when 177,000 people are projected to be without a home, the report said.

It added homelessness increased by 7.8 per cent between 2024 and 2025.

Between 2016 and 2020, homelessness increased by 6.3 per cent. From 2021 to 2025, it increased by 49.1 per cent.

Homelessness will continue to get worse under steady economic conditions until 2035, when 177,000 people are projected to be without a home, the report said.

Jones said an economic downturn is plausible given the current economy and the trade war with the United States. That could lead to 300,000 unhoused Ontarians by 2035, the association predicted.

It stated the “availability of housing and supports has not kept pace with the scale or persistence of homelessness following the pandemic.”

“Best way to help a homeless person is getting them trained and getting them a good-paying job,” Premier Ford said Tuesday.

He cited training offered through his government’s Skills Development Fund, which has come under fire for what the auditor general called a system that doles out money in a way that’s not fair or transparent.

Ford said developing the economy will also help the homeless population, while Green Party deputy leader Aislinn Clancy said the government should make the $11-billion investment recommended by AMO.

With files from The Canadian Press