National homelessness indicators

Data as of June 2026

On this page

• Overview
• Overall homelessness
• Chronic homelessness
• Indigenous homelessness
• New inflows into homelessness
• Returns to homelessness

Overview

Recent homelessness trends are tracked through five key indicators, reported monthly by participating communities that meet minimum data quality standards. Together these indicators provide a dynamic picture of how homelessness is changing and progress is being made to prevent and reduce homelessness in communities across Canada.

National results reflect the middle point (median) of community rates each month, not a total or average across all communities. As additional communities begin to share their data, rates published in earlier releases may be updated. To better understand differences across communities, results are grouped into four tiers based on the overall community population size.

Tier	Community population size	# of participating communities
1	Less than 100,000	14
2	100,000 – 399,999	16
3	400,000 – 999,999	9
4	1 million plus	6
Total		45

Currently, rates reflect reports from eight provinces and two territories. Over time, its scope is expected to broaden as communities continue to work locally on strengthening data quality.

All local data is generated through Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS) using the Community Outcomes Report, or through an equivalent report using a federally approved Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS). Analysis also shows that rates of homelessness tend to be higher in northern communities—both in the territories and in the northern regions of Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Many of these are smaller communities, which highlights the importance of capturing local variation across Canada.

Overall homelessness

Overall homelessness is defined as the total number of unique individuals who experienced homelessness for at least one day during the reporting month.^{Footnote 1}

Key takeaways

• Since the April 2026 update, the national median rate has remained relatively stable, increasing slightly from 29.5 in April to 30.0 in May and 30.1 in June. Rates remain above those recorded during the same period in 2025 (25.5-27.9) and 2024 (23.7-24.1), consistent with an overall year-over-year upward trend.
• Tier 1 rates decreased from 37.8 in April to 33.7 in May and declined slightly further to 33.0 in June. Despite these decreases, Tier 1 rates remained generally higher than those observed during the same period in previous years.
• Tier 2 and Tier 3 rates remained relatively stable from April to June 2026.
• Tier 4 continued to have the highest median rate overall. The rate remained relatively stable over May and June, at 40.8.

Figure 1: Median rates of overall homelessness per 10,000 people

Chronic homelessness

Chronic homelessness is defined as the number of unique individuals who experienced chronic homelessness for at least one day during the reporting month. Chronic homelessness refers to persistent or long-term homelessness where people have: (1) Been homeless for at least 180 days at some point over the course of a year (not necessarily consecutive days); and/or, recurrent episodes of homelessness over three years that total at least 18 months.

Key takeaways

• Since the April 2026 update, the national median rate increased from 14.8 in April to 15.0 in May and 15.4 in June. Rates remained in line with or above the same period in 2025 (14.1-15.4) and above 2024 levels (12.0-12.5), indicating a year-over-year increase.
• Tier 1 rates increased from 15.5 in April to 16.6 in May and remained unchanged at 16.6 in June. Tier 2 remained relatively stable in May (13.8) before increasing to 15.3 in June, while Tier 3 declined slightly from 15.1 in April to 14.6 in May before returning to 15.1 in June.

Figure 2: Median rates of chronic homelessness per 10,000 people

Indigenous homelessness

Indigenous homelessness is defined as the total number of unique individuals who self-identified as Indigenous and experienced homelessness for at least one day during the reporting month.

Key takeaways

• Since the April 2026 update, the national median rate decreased slightly from 6.8 in April to 6.5 in May before increasing to 6.6 in June. Despite this month-to-month variation, rates remained above those observed during the same period in 2025 (5.4-6.0) and 2024 (4.0-4.1), indicating a continued year-over-year increase overall.
• After rising from around 4.0-4.5 in mid-2024 to 5.6 by December 2024, the national median has generally remained between 5.2 and 6.8, including throughout the May-June 2026 period.
• Higher rates partially reflect the inclusion of additional communities in the analysis with higher rates of Indigenous homelessness.

Figure 3: Median rates of Indigenous homelessness per 10,000 people

New inflows into homelessness

New inflows refer to the total number of unique individuals who were identified by the local homeless-serving system for the first time during the reporting period. This does not necessarily mean it is their first experience of homelessness—only that it's the first time they've been recorded by the system.

Key takeaways

• Since the April 2026 update, the national median rate decreased from 2.3 in April to 2.1 in May before increasing to 2.6 in June. Despite this month-to-month variation, the national median remained within the range observed over the past two years.
• Over the longer period from January 2024 to June 2026, the national median consistently fluctuated within a relatively narrow range of approximately 2.1 to 3.4, indicating overall stability despite periodic increases and decreases.

Figure 4: Median rates of new inflows to homelessness per 10,000 people

Returns to homelessness

Returns to homelessness are the number of people who were known to experience homelessness in the past and have returned into homelessness after a time when they were not.

Key takeaways

• Since the April 2026 update, the national median rate remained stable at 0.8 in both May and June. This follows a slight decline from 1.0 in March to 0.8 in April and suggests continued stability at the lower end of the historical range.
• From early 2024 through June 2026, the national median fluctuated within a narrow range of approximately 0.5 to 1.0. This pattern has remained consistent over time, with no clear upward or downward trend, indicating overall stability.

Figure 5: Median rates of returns to homelessness per 10,000 people