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Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

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Seeking Supportive Housing: Chararcteristics, Needs, and Outcomes of Applicants to The Access Point
Supportive housing is the key to ending chronic homelessness, and provides a stable foundation for people living with mental illness or addictions. In Toronto, people apply for this housing through The Access Point, a community agency that works with housing providers. More than 14,000 people are on this waiting list. What are the characteristics of people who have applied for supportive housing – demographics, homelessness,...
Ending Family Homelessness Report: Understanding the Scale and Needs of Families Experiencing Homelessness in Chicago
UChicago Urban Labs
This report by Urban Labs uses data from the homeless service and education sectors in Chicago, USA to estimate the total number of families experiencing homelessness, follow families’ pathways to experiencing homelessness over time, and project the number of families that will experience homelessness in the next year along with their housing needs. The following findings will be used to identify new opportunities to support...
What We Heard About Poverty in B.C.
This report reflects the thousands of voices of people from all over the province of British Columbia who participated in the poverty reduction consultation, a meeting that was designed to give people room to share their experiences of poverty and to share their ideas for improvement.  The many voices represented in this report will help guide government as the first poverty reduction strategy is developed in hopes of...
Riding by Riding Analysis Shows Child Poverty in Canada Knows No Boundaries
For nearly 30 years, Campaign 2000 has documented the failure of good intentions to end poverty. In the lead up to Canada’s first federal Poverty Reduction Strategy, in this report, Campaign 2000 reveals a disturbing picture of the magnitude of child poverty in every federal riding. The latest data paint a stark portrait of inequality in Canada with high- and low-income families living in close proximity while divided by wide...
7 Cities on Housing and Homelessness: Alberta Point-in-Time Homeless Count
7 Cities on Housing and Homelessness
This report presents data collected by the 2018 Point-in-Time count in Alberta, Canada, focusing on seven cities: Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Grande Praire, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and Red Deer. According to this report, there were 5,735 people counted as experiencing homelessness during the count, the majority of which were in Calgary. The report gives a detailed analysis of the new data and its implications on...
Where Am I Going to Go? Intersectional Approaches to Ending LGBTQ2S Youth Homelessness in Canada & the U.S.
This book is an effort to address LGBTQ2S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and two-spirit) youth homelessness in both Canada & the U.S. It includes an examination of the identity-related structural barriers LGBTQ2S youth experiencing homelessness face while accessing adequate services and transitioning out of homelessness, as well as program models that successfully address those barriers. Each...
Youth Rights! Right Now! Ending Youth Homelessness: A Human Rights Guide
Canada Without Poverty
Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
and FEANTSA
Youth homelessness is a pressing issue worldwide that requires urgent attention. To help address the issue, a collaborative group of organizations from Canada and Europe have developed Youth Rights! Right Now! Ending Youth Homelessness: A Human Rights Guide for grounding strategies to end youth homelessness in international human rights law. The guide, based on research, consultations, input from youth and the expertise of...
Racial Disparities in Homelessness in the United States
Most minority groups in the United States experience homelessness at higher rates than Whites, and therefore make up a disproportionate share of the homeless population. This fact sheet presents the 2018 demographic statistics on homelessness in the U.S.
Indianapolis Community Plan to End Homelessness
Coalition for Homelessness Intervention & Prevention
The Indianapolis Community Plan to End Homelessness: 2018 - 2023 is a five-year plan that includes a set of long-term solutions providing the types of systemic reforms necessary to take a truly collaborative approach to end homelessness in our community and serve as a catalyst to developing real solutions for this urgent need.  The goal of the five-year plan is that by 2023, any individual or family in Indianapolis who become...
Homeless Hub
The Homeless Hub is a web-based research library and information centre representing an innovative step forward in the use of technology to enhance knowledge mobilization and networking.
The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness leads a national movement of individuals, organizations and communities working together to end homelessness in Canada.
Home, Together
The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Home, Together is the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness's (USICH) federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness across the U.S. This plan has an increased focus on increasing affordable housing opportunities; strengthening prevention and diversion practices; creating solutions for people experiencing unsheltered, or street, homelessness; tailoring strategies for rural communities; helping people who...
Home, Together: The federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness
United States Interagency on Homelessness
This report outlines the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness in the U.S. This report is guided by the principle that addressing the complex causes of homelessness requires collaborative solutions. Ending homelessness not only means ensuring people have a safe and stable place to call home, but also that services and supports work to help individuals with on a holistic and longterm basis.  
Child Separation among Families Experiencing Homelessness
Douglas Walton
Michelle Wood
Lauren Dunton
This series of research briefs explores issues of family homelessness that are especially relevant to HHS, to state and local decision-makers, and for programs. The Child Separation among Families Experiencing Homelessness brief explores child separations among families experiencing homelessness. It builds upon the fourth brief in this series, “Child and Partner Transitions among Families Experiencing Homelessness,” which...
Engaging Community Residents with Lived Experience
Through the Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning and Evaluation (SCALE) initiative, community partners developed a strengths-based model of community transformation, called Community of Solutions, in partnership with communities. The creators of SCALE believed that communities would create far better, more effective solutions to homelessness if they were guided by the individuals who lived and breathed the...
Promising Practices: 12 Case Studies in Supportive Housing for People with Mental Health and Addiction Issues
This resource guide documents 12 examples of promising practices in supportive housing for people with mental health and addiction issues from across Ontario. Each case study has a distinct approach, but common themes were identified across these twelve specific examples – regarding supports, housing and partnerships. In addition to those themes, the challenges and successes demonstrated through the case studies pointed to...
The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness’ Submission to the National Consultation on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Housing
In this report, the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness advocates for a right to housing approach to homelessness in Canada. According to this report, to see an end to homelessness in Canada — and access to safe, affordable housing for all — the Government of Canada must make an explicit, actionable and judiciable commitment to housing as an inalienable human right. To this end, the report goes on to give specific...
Chronic Homelessness: A Research Brief
Dennis Culhane
This fact sheet provides a brief history and current understanding of chronic, episodic, and transitional homelessness. As understanding of homelessness in the United States has evolved, researchers have come to recognize chronic homelessness as a relatively small and “solvable” problem that affects, on average, about 10 to 15 percent of people who experience homelessness. This vulnerable population of people with...
Invisible People - Changing the Story of Homelessness
Invisible People goes beyond the rhetoric, statistics, political debates, and limitations of social services to examine poverty in America via a medium that audiences of all ages can understand, and can’t ignore. The video blog puts into context one of our nation’s most troubling and prevalent issues through personal stories captured by the lens of Mark Horvath – its founder – and brings into focus the pain, hardship and...
Housing in Canada's big cities
This source provides an update on housing affordability and availabity in Calgary, enabling a broader understanding of housing supply trends, gaps and implications and specifically, the current state of the affordable housing segment.  According to this source, Calgary’s housing supply differs substantially from other Canadian cities. Among the major cities in Canada, Calgary has the highest rates of homeownership and single-...