As homelessness continues to rise, there has been some confusion around how much shelter space is actually available for the unhoused, if people are being turned away, and if there is ultimately enough room for everyone in need.
The confusion exists, perhaps, because it’s not that simple.
The number of beds available is just one component to a much bigger piece. There are different types of shelters, accessible to different people, and with different rules and barriers that come with them. There is no magic number of beds, because there is no one size fits all solution, and it isn’t only about the beds themselves but the shelter space as a whole and the people accessing – or not – accessing it.
As of July 30, there were 239 individuals on the By-Name List (BNL), according to County of Wellington social services administrator Luisa Artuso. Eighty-eight per cent are chronically unhoused.
At the same point in time, there were 125 shelter and temporary accommodation beds in Guelph operated by Stepping Stone (for adults and families) and Wyndham House (for youth).
Stepping Stone’s emergency shelter at 23 Gordon also utilizes 20 cots if needed, bringing the total number of available beds to 145.
Norfolk Manor, which transitioned to a shelter space in July, has 44 beds. That capacity will increase to 68 within the next week or so as more units become ready after undergoing maintenance, bringing the total up to 169.
There are 28 beds at Marianne’s Place, a women’s shelter run by Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis, which isn’t included in the data. However, shelter program manager Christine Wilson said they go over capacity when needed.Over the winter, around 25 people will also be put up in hotels, though that number could go down if some of the 25 go to Norfolk Manor – “we would not double count the beds,” Artuso said.
“As of last winter we have made a choice as an organization not to turn people away from the shelter and operate the shelter with high numbers if needed. Over the last months we have had capacity every night within the shelter system,” said Gail Hoekstra, executive director of Stepping Stone.
While not everyone accesses the shelter system, the number of beds isn't equal to the number of people experiencing homelessness even if they wanted to.
However, Artuso said over the past three years about 33 per cent of individuals experiencing homelessness stay in precarious housing, while 60 per cent access shelters and seven per cent live unsheltered.
But capacity isn’t necessarily the issue.
“We have to look at temporary accommodations as not a one size fits all solution,” said Grant Martin, network coordinator for the Canadian Shelter Transformation Network, an organization committed to creating housing-focused shelters and ending homelessness in Canada.
“So you may have a shelter, but that shelter may not be designed in a way to meet the unique needs of certain populations of people.”
There are many reasons someone might choose to remain unsheltered, he said, including barriers preventing them from utilizing a shelter.
For instance, he said shelters are often designed to be congregate living spaces, which isn’t ideal for everyone. They also might require partners, families and pets to separate. Or there could be rules residents are unable to follow, like sobriety, for instance.
“Perhaps I might see it as more of a viable option (albeit not a safer one) to remain outdoors and have more control over what’s important to me and how I’m spending my day to day,” he said.
He said the important thing is for shelter operators to understand why people might not be accessing the shelter space and how to remove any barriers to make them a more suitable alternative to living rough.
Someone’s history with a shelter can act as a barrier too: He said it’s important to try to rebuild relationships with people who might feel they’ve had negative interactions within the shelter space and its workers, “so they do start to see shelters as an option to come back to, despite whatever history they may have.”
The number of available shelter beds compared to the number of unsheltered people varies from community to community, so there is no general standard as they all work to respond to the specific needs of their own communities.
He said alternative options are good to have as well, like emergency motel accommodations, which Guelph has done, or alternatives like trained host families to take in youth experiencing homelessness.
“It’s about trying to have options that meet the need at a local level, depending on the types of homelessness that you're seeing and what type of sheltering needs to be provided.”
With existing shelters, “how are we making sure that we have well-trained staff that can also understand how to deliver services in a very housing-focused and low-barrier way to meet the needs of people coming into our space, as opposed to asking them to change who they are to meet the needs of the shelter?”
In other words, he said, using more of a customer service approach, adapting shelter services to the client.
It’s not so much how many people are on the BNL, he said, but “on any given night, how many people are seeking shelter versus other forms of accommodations, and do you have the right number for the people who are actively seeking your shelter beds?”
For example, he said in some communities the BNL shows “most folks are in transitional housing programs or in temporary accommodations with friends or family, so then the demand on emergency shelter beds or motel accommodations is quite low, and there isn’t a need to increase it, because there’s other options available for those folks.”
The focus then should be on making shelter spaces more viable, he said, while acknowledging homelessness is a complex issue and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
Likewise, he said even if there were more than enough shelter spaces for the unhoused population, it needs to be recognized “that shelters don’t solve homelessness.”
“They’re a pathway for people to get back to permanent housing. So what we really need to recognize is that shelters are a part of a process, they’re not a destination. They’re a process that moves people towards our eventual goal, which is to re-house them.”
