Want a more accurate number of Canada's homeless population? Try counting health data

A new method for counting homeless people is offering a clearer look at the magnitude of the social issue, with preliminary results indicating the country's homeless population could be three times higher than current estimates.

A new method for counting homeless people is offering a clearer look at the magnitude of the social issue, with preliminary results indicating the country's homeless population could be three times higher than current estimates.

Traditional methods for determining the number of homeless people have relied on counting people accessing services, like shelters or food banks, Cheryl Forchuk, a researcher with Lawson Health Research Institute, said in a recent interview.

Other methods, she said, involve front-line workers keeping spreadsheets or notebooks with lists of homeless people, but that data is not always included in national databases, she said.

"Not everybody is found," said Forchuk, whose institute is affiliated with Western University. "A lot of people experiencing homelessness do not choose to access shelters, or there isn't capacity."

Canada's national database estimates that there are approximately 235,000 homeless people across the country, but that number triples when health-care data is considered, Forchuk said.

Health-care data, while not perfect, can be a reliable marker because homeless people are "very, very vulnerable from a health perspective," Forchuk said, adding that they are between four and 10 times more likely than the average to visit an emergency room.

Forchuk's research began in Ontario, and is now being expanded across the country; it includes interviews with front-line community service workers and hundreds of homeless people.