Toronto advocates are calling on the city to ramp up access to safe and stable housing for unhoused individuals after a new report finds Canadians experiencing homelessness die 17 years earlier on average than unexposed individuals.
In the report by Frontiers of Public Health, researchers analyzed unhoused people, who have historically had higher mortality rates compared to housed individuals in Canada. This trend was also believed to have become exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study says.
The findings show that people experiencing homelessness indeed have consistent patterns of poorer health and increased mortality in comparison to housed counterparts over the past several decades.
Although it was found to be inconclusive on whether the pandemic has impacted mortality for unhoused people, the research shows that it created several challenges such as elevated infection rates leading to negative outcomes, as well as creating disruption to essential services.
“The pandemic amplified existing mental health and substance use struggles, contributing to a surge in acute mental health events, substance use, and instances of self-harm,” the study reads.
In a random sample group tested, researchers found unhoused individuals between the ages of 25 to 44 had higher rates of hazard, and noted that the unhoused group were 17 years younger on average at death than the unexposed individuals.
TORONTO NEEDS IMMEDIATE PLAN TO PROVIDE STABLE HOUSING
“The findings in the Frontiers in Public Health report are unsurprising,” Acting Executive Director of the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness Savhanna Wilson told Now Toronto on Friday.
“Housing is a critical social determinant of health, and experiencing homelessness presents a significant risk to the health and lives of thousands of people in our community. The right to adequate, safe, and stable housing can only be achieved if all orders of government work together to address the growing crisis in our communities.”
Wilson notes that while the city has made great strides recently towards planning for more affordable housing to be added to the market, the plans tend to take several years to be implemented which does not address the urgency of the issues or improve the current lives and health outcomes for unsheltered individuals.
“People experiencing homelessness deserve a dedicated plan to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring that establishes clear targets and timelines, and the city must create this plan in partnership with community experts and people with lived and living experience. It is only through collaboration, community, and care that this can be achieved,” Wilson said.
150 UNHOUSED TORONTONIANS DIED IN 2023
Last year, Toronto Public Health (TPH) received 150 reports of deaths among people experiencing homelessness, a decrease from 2022 but still higher than pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, TPH explained in an email. Drug toxicity remains the leading reported cause of death, but other causes of death include cardiovascular disease, accidents, cancer, and deaths due to suicide.
“Data also showed that people experiencing homelessness die at younger ages compared to the general population, and that 64 per cent of these reported deaths were in people under 60,” TPH said in an email.
The city continues to battle the homelessness crisis, where there are more than 10,600 people experiencing homelessness in Toronto, according to city data from the past three months.
Currently, preventing homelessness and improving pathways to housing stability is one of the key actions embedded in Toronto’s 10-year Housing TO Action Plan from 2020 to 2023.
According to the action plan, the city’s gross budget for housing and homelessness solutions has doubled from $180.5 million to $365.3 million over the past five years, and it aims to implement an array of actions such as measures to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place, as well as a “Housing First approach” which focuses on helping people to find permanent housing as quickly as possible.
