Watch Live Nearly 85,000 people homeless in Ontario, up 8 per cent in one year: report

TORONTO — Homelessness is getting worse across Ontario with an estimated 85,000 people who were without a home in 2025 and nearly 2,000 encampments across the province, a new report from Ontario’s municipalities shows.

More than half of those people are experiencing prolonged periods of homelessness of six months or longer, the report led by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario found.

About 20,000 children and youth are homeless in the province. The data shows northern and rural regions are driving the growth in homelessness.

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

“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.”

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.

Should the economy take a nosedive, which Jones said is quite plausible given its current state and the ongoing trade war with the United States, there could be nearly 300,000 homeless people by then.