(Ottawa) It would take colossal sums of money to achieve the National Housing Strategy’s goal of reducing chronic homelessness by 50% by 2027-2028. This is what the Parliamentary Budget Officer notes in a report released Wednesday.
Yves Giroux estimates that the government would have to inject 3.5 billion annually to achieve this, an amount seven times greater than the current funding for the Vers un chez-soi program. Most of the $561 million allocated annually to the strategy is allocated there.
The program finances housing assistance measures for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The Parliamentary Budget Officer notes that nearly 18,000 people were able to have more stable housing between 2019-2020 and 2022-2023, more than 5,000 benefited from emergency housing and more than 31,000 obtained services of prevention.
Despite this assistance, the number of homeless people increased by 20% compared to 2018 and now exceeds 34,000.
Further details will follow.