Improving the understanding of homelessness in London

A Canada-wide research project aimed at getting data on homelessness from communities across the country made a stop in London, Ont. on Tuesday.

“So we're here giving our preliminary results on a study trying to find more accurate ways of knowing how many people in the entire country of Canada are truly homeless and who [they are],” said Dr. Cheryl Forchuk, assistant scientific director at Lawson Health Research Institute.

With funding from the Government of Canada, the research project is collecting data surrounding the homelessness situation and how it differs from city to city.

“It's very important for governments to understand the extent of the problem, as well as community agencies, because funding follows the numbers, right? If we underestimate the size of a problem, we're [going to] under find the solution to the problem,” said Forchuk.

Since January 2021, the team has collected data from 28 distinct communities with homelessness challenges. They have visited a variety of community shelters and organizations to meet with those with lived experience, as well as service providers.

“And if we don't know who is homeless, we can’t direct our services to the population that needs services directed for them,” added Forchuk.

Jesse House and Victoria Satov experienced homelessness for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When you're out there, you're just finding a way to survive to get through the next day and then the next day and then keep going,” said Satov.

Meanwhile, House spoke of the need for alternatives to the shelter system and told CTV News London, “We camped our entire [homeless] because we were afraid of COVID, we were afraid of being in the shelters. They need to make places like alternatives, like the camping is what helped us.”

Craig Cooper is the director of housing stability services at the City of London and said, “Part of the challenges we're seeing is the gaps in data. It's very difficult then to go to counsel or go to government or chat with community about what the real situation [is]. We can see what's going on in the street, but we can't really quantify it.”

Cooper believes this project will give a better picture of homelessness in the community and how to better address people’s needs.

“Having access points and understanding how we can connect with those folks and Have people feel comfortable to connect to this system is a real key consideration as well,” he said.

The first six forums have been scheduled in communities across Ontario, including Thunder Bay, North Bay, Kingston, Chatham-Kent, London and Brantford. These will be followed by future forums in various locations across Canada.