Nearly 13,000 Canadians were sleeping in cars, parks, alleys and abandoned buildings on a single night last year, while another 4,700 were living in encampments, according to the most comprehensive federal homelessness count released to date.Blacklock's Reporter says a new report from Housing Minister Gregor Robertson's department counted 65,083 people experiencing homelessness across 75 communities during point-in-time surveys conducted in 2025, with officials warning that the number of people living unsheltered has surged since the last national count.According to the report, 12,857 people were found sleeping in what the government classifies as unsheltered locations, including streets, alleys, parks, transit stations, ravines, abandoned buildings and vehicles.Another 4,763 people were counted living in tent encampments.The largest share of the homeless population — 36,716 people — was staying in emergency shelters, while another 10,747 were housed in transitional accommodation programs.The report, Everyone Counts 2025: Results From The Annual Enumeration Of Homelessness, found the number of people living unsheltered has increased dramatically since 2022."Compared to 2022 the enumeration of people in an unsheltered location has nearly doubled," the report states, noting an 89% increase over three years.The department did not identify a specific cause for the increase..The findings are based on coordinated homelessness counts conducted in the spring and fall of 2025 across communities from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as all three territories.Officials said the fall 2025 survey focused exclusively on counting people experiencing homelessness, a change they said would provide more timely information on changing homelessness trends.The report does not include Canadians experiencing so-called hidden homelessness, such as those temporarily staying with friends or relatives because they have nowhere else to live.Federal officials acknowledged some municipalities collect that information, but excluded it from the national report because data collection methods vary widely.The government expects a more complete picture to emerge when results from the 2026 Census are released.For the first time, Statistics Canada included mandatory questions asking Canadians whether they had stayed in a shelter, on the street, in a park, in a makeshift shelter, vehicle or abandoned building during the previous 12 months.The census also asks whether respondents temporarily lived with friends, family or others because they had nowhere else to stay, a measure intended to produce Canada's first national estimate of hidden homelessness.Previous federal estimates suggested hidden homelessness may be widespread. A 2018 Canada Revenue Agency study estimated roughly 50,000 Canadians on any given night were temporarily staying with family or friends because they lacked permanent housing.The 2025 homelessness count included communities across every province and territory, including Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit, among dozens of others.
