New numbers show 672 people are currently experiencing homelessness in Windsor-Essex — a dramatic jump from the 251 counted in 2021. But council says knowing how many isn’t enough. At Monday’s meeting, the 2024 Point-in-Time (PiT) Count was presented, showing more people going without a home — and for longer stretches — with 72 per cent of those surveyed meeting the federal definition of chronic homelessness. That means they’ve been homeless for at least six months. While the PiT Count captures a single night — in this case, October 24, 2024 — it includes people in shelters, transitional housing, domestic violence shelters, encampments and even institutions with no housing plan on discharge. It also includes a survey of 388 individuals or families. Top reasons for losing housing were found to include financial hardship, unaffordable options, landlord conflict and relationship breakdown. But Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac says that’s not the whole story. “It’s not an issue of people simply being homeless,” she said during Monday’s meeting. “We need to get the background information.” Gignac says they need clearer insight into mental health and addiction, to better target spending on programs that work. Council passed a motion from Ward 8’s Gary Kaschak directing administration to send letters to upper levels of government as part of ongoing advocacy around funding and support. Gignac added a friendly amendment, calling for new efforts to gather better data on why people are losing housing — not just that they are. “We want to be able to indicate that the investments in these various programs are ‘moving the needle’ in the right direction,” she said. The PiT Count was conducted by OrgCode Consulting and is part of a national mandate under Ottawa’s Reaching Home strategy. The next street count happens in October 2025, with a full PiT survey set for October 2027. (With files from AM800’s Rusty Thomson)
