IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cpp/issued/v44y2018i4p342-355.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patterns and Intensity of Use of Homeless Shelters in Toronto

Author

Listed:
  • Ali Jadidzadeh
  • Ron Kneebone

Abstract

A large administrative data set allows us to examine shelter use by single adults, youth, and families in Toronto. We find important differences in shelter use by single adults, youth, and families. We introduce an approach that allows us to identify a noticeable increase in the percentage of shelter clients whom we define as chronic users of the shelter system—people for whom each episode of shelter use is typically very long. This should be a concern because chronic users of the system, although they make up only a small fraction of all shelter clients, fill more than 40 percent of shelter capacity. A growing number of chronic shelter users will strain the ability of the shelter system to provide shelter to those seeking temporary relief while they re-establish themselves into housing. Homeless shelters are a response to a serious social problem. They are not the cause of nor are they the solution to that problem. Growing shelter use is an indication of a social order in trouble.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali Jadidzadeh & Ron Kneebone, 2018. "Patterns and Intensity of Use of Homeless Shelters in Toronto," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 44(4), pages 342-355, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:44:y:2018:i:4:p:342-355
    DOI: 10.3138/cpp.2018-013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2018-013
    Download Restriction: access restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.3138/cpp.2018-013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ron Kneebone, 2018. "Housing, Homelessness and Poverty," SPP Briefing Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 11(29), November.
    2. Ron Kneebone & Margarita Wilkins, 2022. "The Sensitivity of Food Bank Visits to Social Assistance, Housing and Labour Market Conditions in Toronto," SPP Research Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 15(10), March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:44:y:2018:i:4:p:342-355. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Iver Chong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/cpp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.