As of Dec. 31, 2023, the City of Hamilton’s data table also shows that shelter occupancy is at 111 per cent for male beds, 98 per cent for female beds, 103 per cent for family rooms, 63 per cent for youth beds, and 88 per cent for emergency beds. Photo Credit: University of Toronto Scarborough.
The City of Hamilton’s data table indicates that there are 1,633 individuals experiencing homelessness in Hamilton as of Dec. 31, 2023.
That is down slightly from the 1,671 that were homeless as of Nov. 30, 2023, and a decrease of more than 300 when compared to July 31.
On July 31, 2023, the City of Hamilton reported an all-time high of 1,985 individuals experiencing homelessness.
The December 2023 number includes 583 people who have been homeless for more than six months and 1,050 who have been homeless for less than six months.
Still, there has been an increase year-over-year from December 2022 when there were 1,536 people experiencing homelessness.
Another update is expected at the end of January 2024.
As of Dec. 31, 2023, the City of Hamilton’s data table also shows that shelter occupancy is at 111 per cent for male beds, 98 per cent for female beds, 103 per cent for family rooms, 63 per cent for youth beds, and 88 per cent for emergency beds.
The city’s Director of Housing Services, Michelle Baird, also recently provided an update to Council about the enforcement of the Encampment Protocol that was approved in August 2023.
Although reports on the protocol are being provided by Housing Services monthly, the most recent report available on the City of Hamilton website appears to be a document dated Nov. 15, 2023.
The report notes that there were 680 total complaints or requests for service requiring follow-up by Housing Focused Street Outreach in October 2023.
It states that since the Encampment Protocol was ratified “the number of complaints and service requests regarding new sites has increased steadily.”
Baird writes, “This is likely due to individuals formerly living in larger, previously established encampments in non-compliant spaces moving to new spaces throughout the city.”
The analysis echoes what some residents in neighbourhood groups have expressed: that the protocol has simply resulted in encampments spreading out over the whole city rather than being concentrated in one area.
The protocol only allows those who are homeless to set up tents in clusters of five with each cluster required to be 50 metres away from each other.
Through the ratification of the protocol, Housing Services is supposed to respond to complaints and/or service requests related to encampments within three days.
Data in the report indicates that “Housing Focused Street Outreach has met its service level 74 per cent of the time.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
