The Homeless Hub is an organization within The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH), a non-partisan research and policy partnership between academics, policy and decision-makers, service providers, and people with lived experience of homelessness.
The work of the COH is organized into 8 research areas, each designed to involve cross-sectoral partnership and collaboration aimed at conducting and disseminating research for impact:
Understanding systems integration
Models of accommodation and support
Understanding Indigenous homelessness
Youth homelessness
The prevention of homelessness
Legal and justice issues
Measuring progress toward ending homelessness
Mobilizing research knowledge
However, COH acknowledges that research is not the only way to end homelessness. With this, The Homeless Hub is COH's platform to disseminate and share learning, best practices, and resources for individuals experiencing homelessness. It is the largest online homelessness research library in the world, housing over 30,000 resources. The Homeless Hub also has many other resources for anyone working, researching, or legislating on homelessness, such as several plain-language reports, tools, templates, and frameworks.
Some of The Homeless Hub's main "solution" sections are:
Homeless prevention
Ending homelessness
Accommodations & Support for homeless individuals
System Integration
Information on priority populations (families & children, LGBTQIA+ homeless, disabled homeless, etc.)
Other topics about homelessness covered on The Homeless Hub's website include:
Health
Mental Health
Substance Use & Addiction
Education, Training, & Employment
Legal & Justice Issues
Priority Populations
Service Provisions
The Homeless Hub also has many statistics on different areas within Canada. Here is the statistical information regarding homelessness in Vancouver, British Columbia as of 2020:
Total number of people experiencing homelessness: 3,634
Individuals experiencing chronic homelessness:74%
Individuals experiencing episodic homelessness:26%
Individuals experiencing sheltered homelessness:2,605
Individuals staying in emergency shelters:241
Individuals staying in a facility setting:192
Individuals staying in provisional accommodation:2,413
Individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness: 1,029
Number of hidden homeless: Couch surfing: 180
Individuals identifying as youth: Age 24 and under: 9%
Individuals identifying as Indigenous: 33%
Individuals identifying as LGBTQ2S+:11%
Individuals identifying as female: 25%
Individuals identifying as male: 73%
To reach Homeless Hub's website directly, click here.