14 January 2026
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Published by: My Espanola Now
Author: Rosalind Russell
January 14, 2026
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New data confirms homelessness in Northern Ontario Is accelerating faster than systems and communities can sustain.
Mayor of Sables-Spanish Rivers and Chair of the Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board, Kevin Burke says it is no surprise.
He adds without a coordinated plan from the province to increase affordable housing stock and offset the increased capital costs associated with building in northern Ontario, the number of homeless individuals in the north will continue to grow at an alarming rate.
The report was published this month by NOSDA, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association.
It recommends a housing-led, prevention-focused, and coordinated approach, with sustained investment in deeply affordable and supportive housing, stronger prevention and housing stability supports, and alignment across all orders of government.
The partners will use the report to address their concerns with all levels of government and related agencies.
The report states from 2024 to 2025, homelessness in Northern Ontario increased by 37.3 percent, compared to 7.8 percent across the province.
Since 2021, homelessness in the north has increased by approximately 117.5 percent, more than double the provincial rate.
While Northern Ontario represents five percent of Ontario’s population, it now accounts for nearly ten percent of all known homelessness in the province.
In just one year, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Northern Ontario rose from 5,930 to 8,142, highlighting the widening gap between need and system capacity.
The report confirms that homelessness in Northern Ontario is increasingly shaped by structural housing shortages, not short-term shocks. Limited availability of deeply affordable, supportive, and community housing is restricting exits from homelessness and increasing the number of people remaining unhoused for longer periods.
In 2025, 13,104 households were on community housing waitlists in Northern Ontario, up from 8,467 in 2021 — a more than 50 percent increase in just four years.
These pressures are contributing to longer shelter stays, increased chronic homelessness, and rising system costs across health, emergency, and social services.
The impacts are also deeply inequitable.
Indigenous people account for 40.7 percent of homelessness in Northern Ontario, reflecting long-standing systemic barriers and the need for Indigenous led, culturally appropriate housing and homelessness solutions developed in partnership with Indigenous communities.
It adds beyond its human toll, homelessness is also increasingly undermining community and economic stability across Northern Ontario.
Municipalities are absorbing rising costs for emergency shelters, health care, public safety, and encampment responses, while housing shortages make it harder to attract and retain workers, support business growth, and sustain local economic development.
Officials say persistent homelessness reduces labour-market participation, strains municipal budgets, and diverts resources from infrastructure, housing supply, and community-building investments that support long-term economic resilience.
Without changes to current system conditions, the report projects that homelessness in Northern Ontario will continue to rise through 2035 — reaching approximately 16,900 people under steady economic conditions and more than 27,500 people in an economic downturn.
The findings reinforce a key conclusion from last year’s report: homelessness is not a temporary crisis, but the result of system-level gaps across housing, income, health, and social services. Managing emergency pressures alone will not reverse the trend.