The Cost of Homelessness in Canada | Steve Pomeroy

Governments often ask whether we can afford to house people experiencing homelessness. Housing policy expert Steve Pomeroy flips the question: how much are we already paying to keep people homeless?

In this episode, he revisits his foundational cost of homelessness research showing supportive housing costs about one-third as much as emergency responses like shelters, hospitals, and police. Pomeroy explains why governments struggle to reinvest savings, points to structural drivers of Canada’s housing crisis, and outlines his Recovery for All plan — a costed roadmap to end homelessness for less than what we already spend on failure.

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Guest: Steve Pomeroy is one of Canada’s leading housing policy experts, whose early cost of homelessness studies in Toronto (late 1990s), British Columbia (2001), and a landmark 2005 national study helped establish the field in Canada. Beyond this foundational work, he has published widely on Canadian housing economics, affordability, and policy. He is Principal of Focus Consulting Inc., Senior Research Fellow with the Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative (CHEC), and Industry Professor at McMaster University.

Topics Covered:

• Supportive housing vs. emergency system costs
• Methodology of Canada’s cost-of-homelessness studies
• Why cost-offsets often don’t immediately translate into budget savings
• Root causes of the homelessness crisis
• What it would cost to end homelessness in Canada

Studies referenced:

• Cost of Homelessness in British Columbia (2001)
• The Cost of Homelessness: Analysis of Alternate Responses in Four Canadian Cities (2005)
• Recovery for All (2020)
• Filling the hole in the bucket: Loss of existing affordable rentals massively undermining new affordable supply (2024)

Production:

• Producers: Tristan Markle, Lina Moskaleva, and CJ Tremblay
• Sound and original music: Matthew Hayter, matthewhaytermusic.com
• This podcast is a project of The Publication Cooperative
• If you have thoughts, feedback, or ideas, you can email us at [email protected]