Homelessness on the rise amid housing crisis, public health officials say
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
Public health authorities in the Capitale-Nationale region estimate that the number of homeless people in the region is rising by eight to 10 per cent year-on-year amid the ongoing affordable housing shortage. The CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale made the estimate on the day of the periodic regional homelessness census, April 15.
“Every week, there are new faces coming to seek help at [organizations offering assistance to homeless people] – people who are coming for the first time,” said Frédéric Keck, assistant director for homelessness and partnerships at the CIUSSS. “Social assistance for a single person in Quebec City is $829 [per month]. Try to find a place to live for that amount and keep enough left over for your other needs, and you’ll understand why people fail. It’s hard to get and keep a place to live.”
The homelessness census, funded by the provincial and federal governments and overseen by regional public health bodies with support from volunteers and local nonprofits, has been carried out across the province every three years since 2018 (although the 2021 census was rescheduled to fall 2022 due to public health concerns).
“The numbers help us give data to the impressions that we have,” Keck said. “People say homelessness is on the rise, and this allows us to quantify that impression. We had an increase of 36 per cent between 2018 and 2022 and it looks like we are at closer to 16 per cent between the [2022 and 2025] exercises.
“The point is not to get an exact number [of homeless people in a given area] but to get an idea of the size of the situation,” Keck told the QCT after the census. He explained that about 120 trained volunteers fanned out in neighbourhoods across the city, speaking to everyone they crossed paths with for a voluntary survey on their housing situation. The information gathered from the survey, along with data collected by nonprofits serving homeless and housing-insecure people, helps the CIUSSS to paint a picture of the number of homeless people in the region, the situations that lead to homelessness, and how housing-insecure people survive.
“The census will help us make sure we’re intervening in the right places, understand what the breaking points are that put people on the street and how we can help someone before they become homeless,” he said.
Although detailed data for the 2025 census was not available as of this writing, eviction (22 per cent), substance abuse problems (21 per cent) and insufficient income (17 per cent) are the three most common reasons participants gave for losing their homes in 2022. When asked how they managed to pay for their basic needs, 60 per cent said they received social assistance, 19 per cent cited “begging, collecting empty bottles, sex work or selling drugs,” and 17 per cent had at least some employment income.
About one-third of homeless people, and one-sixth of those who had recently slept outside, were women. Members of the LGBTQ+ community and Indigenous people made up larger proportions of the homeless community than of the general population, an overrepresentation which Keck also noticed during the 2025 survey. “We have to see what we can do to better collaborate with the Centre Mamuk or the Centre d’amitié autochtone to help Indigenous people who are struggling,” he said. Across all age, gender and ethnic groups, 56 per cent of respondents said they wanted assistance to get and keep a home and 39 per cent said they wanted places to socialize and meet new people.
Although the causes of homelessness are multiple, the common denominator is the lack of a place to live. “The current vacancy rate [for rental housing] in Quebec City is 0.8 per cent, and it’s lower than that for [apartments accessible to] vulnerable people,” Keck said. “We have the PRISM project [supervised housing for mentally ill formerly homeless people], the Stabilité résidentielle project [for at-risk young adults] and the Salvation Army project [conversion of the former Salvation Army centre in Vieux-Québec into a shelter equipped to treat people with substance abuse problems]. But the reality is, housing poverty is growing and there are more people in precarious situations than we can help.”
Keck encouraged people who want to help the homeless community to donate money, time or supplies to a local nonprofit. “Local organizations do an extraordinary job, and it’s important to help them – they’re the ones on the front lines.”