The Street Needs Assessment (SNA) is a survey and point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness in Toronto on April 26, 2018. The results provide a snapshot of the scope and profile of the City's homeless population. The results also give people experiencing homelessness a voice in the services they need to find and keep housing. The 2018 SNA is the City's fourth homeless count and survey and was part of a coordinated point-in-time count conducted by communities across Canada and Ontario. The results of the 2018 Street Needs Assessment were summarized in a report and key highlights slide deck. During the course of the night, a 23 core question survey was completed with 2,019 individuals experiencing homelessness staying in shelters (including provincially-administered Violence Against Women shelters), 24-hour respite sites (including 24-hour women's drop-ins and the Out of the Cold overnight program open on April 26, 2018), and outdoors. The SNA includes individuals experiencing absolute homelessness but does not capture hidden homelessness (i.e., people couch surfing or staying temporarily with others who do not have the means to secure permanent housing). This dataset includes the SNA survey results; it does not include the count of people experiencing homelessness in Toronto. The SNA employs a point-in-time methodology for enumerating homelessness that is now the standard for most major US and Canadian urban centres. While a consistent methodology and approach has been used each year in Toronto, changes were made in 2018, in part, as a result of participation in the national and provincial coordinated point-in-time count. As a result, caution should be made in comparing these results to previous SNA survey results. Key changes included: administering the survey in a representative sample (rather than census) of shelters; administering the survey in all 24-hour respite sites and a sample of refugee motel programs added to the homelessness service system since the 2013 SNA; and a standard set of core survey questions that communities were required to follow to ensure comparability. In addition, in 2018, surveys were not conducted in provincially-administered health and treatment facilities and correctional facilities as was done in 2013. The 2018 survey results provide a valuable source of information about the service needs of people experiencing homelessness in Toronto. This information is used to improve the housing and homelessness programs provided by the City of Toronto and its partners to better serve our clients and more effectively address homelessness. Visit https://www.toronto.calcity-government/data-research-maps/research-reports/housing-and-homelessness-research-and-reports/

The data on this dashboard is divided into seven sections: demographics, housing pressures, housing supply, experiences of homelessness, shelter demand and occupancy, housing solutions, and the Centralized Wait List. Data for this dashboard was collected from a number of sources, including administrative data from the City of Ottawa, and publicly available data from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, among other public data sources.Date Created: June 27th 2025 Update Frequency: Annually Last Reviewed: June 27th 2025Accuracy, Completeness, and Known Issues: The Housing Needs Assessment dashboard relies on data from Statistics Canada (Census), Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), municipal administrative datasets, and local housing market information. Many data points include disaggregation by various demographic characteristics, including household characteristics, housing core need, the Point-in-Time count of people experiencing homelessness, shelter system capacity and demand sourced from the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS), and the Centralized Wait List. Some data points, such as average rent prices and housing stock amounts cannot be further aggregated using demographic characteristics. More information regarding data quality and methodology can be found within the full Housing Needs Assessment report.Attributes: The following data tables have been provided for the dataset, and are organized into themes.Demographics:Population by Age GroupHouseholdsImmigrant PopulationIncomeHousing Pressures:Housing CostsConsumer Price IndexVacancy RateHousing Supply:Housing DevelopmentHousing StockExperiences of Homelessness:Experiences of HomelessnessShelter Demand and Occupancy:Shelter Demand and CapacityShelter Average Length of StayHousing Solutions:Affordable and Supportive Units BuiltRent-Geared-to-Income and Housing BenefitsCentralized Wait List:Clients on Centralized Wait ListNew Centralized Wait List ApplicationsHoused from Centralized WaitlistData Steward: Liam McGuireData Steward Email: liam.mcguire@ottawa.caDepartment or Agency: Community and Social ServicesBranch/Unit: Housing Data, Research and Analytics Unit