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Recent research has confirmed that only a minority of people who use emergency shelter beds

are long-term users. Most shelter clients stay for short periods and do so relatively infrequently.

These people use shelters as a temporary solution to problems that stem from poverty as

opposed to problems arising from addiction or mental health problems. The implication is that

addressing poverty may be an effective way of shrinking the need for emergency shelter beds.

Our study uses information describing demographic characteristics and a measure of housing

affordability in 51 Canadian cities to identify to what extent efforts at poverty reduction may

enable the closing of emergency shelter beds.

Across Canada in 2011, 15,493 permanent beds were available in 408 emergency shelters. The

provision of emergency shelter beds varies widely across cities. Calgary, for example, provides

more than twice as many beds per 100,000 people than does Vancouver or Toronto and more

than four times the number provided in Montreal. The number of emergency beds provided is

an indication not only of the number of homeless people but it is also a measure of the local

response to the issue.

We show that an effective strategy for shrinking the need for shelter beds is to provide improved

income support to the very poor. Accounting for differences in climate, housing affordability,

and demographics that may be associated with discrimination in housing markets, we show

how a relatively modest increase in the incomes of those with very low incomes can shrink the

need for emergency beds by nearly 20%. We also show that a modest increase in rent subsidies

would have a similar impact. Still other policies that can prove effective are those that reduce

the cost of building housing that can be profitably rented at prices those with low incomes can

afford. These may involve tax incentives to builders and may call into question efforts at urban

densification which makes low-cost construction difficult. The wide range of policy choices

means that all levels of government have a role to play in increasing the affordability of housing

for those with low incomes. Recognizing the broad range of effective policy options is important

because the causes of homelessness vary by city and so policymakers need to be flexible in their

responses to the issue.