Thunder Bay homelessness count surveys nearly 500 people in 24 hours

Officials from social service organizations in Thunder Bay, Ont., say they counted nearly 475 homeless people during this year's Point in Time Count, which ran from April 21 to 22 of this year.

The previous count, the inaugural one conducted in 2016, counted 289 people.

"I think there's a few reasons,"said, Bonnie Krysowaty, a social researcher with the Lakehead Social Planning Council.

"The count was a little more widely known this time among the population that we surveyed ... [and] the other thing is that we might want to look at the time of year."

The first Point in Time Count that happened in Thunder Bay took placeduring the cold monthof January, while this year, the count was held in mid-April, she said.

Another thing that jumped out at her during this year's count was the amount of people who were couch-surfing for a undetermined amount of time, Krysowaty said.

"Almost 51 per cent of the individuals we surveyed are couch-surfing or were couch surfing during the 24-hour period," she said."Also a little over 25 per cent of individuals were staying at an emergency centre overnight."

The numbers are frightening,Krysowatysaid.

"When we look at cities that have hundreds and thousands of people, they're counting 1,500 people, and we're a city of about 100,000people, and we're counting almost 500 individuals."

"Homelessness is an epidemic in thecity," Krysowaty said, which means the municipality and the province "really need to work together to combat the issue."

"When we look at the percentage of people that identified as Indigenous, we see that it's 66 per cent, so definitely Thunder Bay needs to work with Indigenous-led organizations ... to ensure that solutions will be successful for that demographic," sheadded.

Data from this year's count showed that addiction or substance use was themost common factor identified as contributing to recent housing-loss.

"Unless we have solutions ... to help people and support people that are dealing with poverty and with addictionor substance issues, we won't be able to decrease homelessness the way that we should be able to," Krysowaty said.