Ending Canadian Homelessness
In Canada, solutions put forth to end homelessness are similar to those championed by advocates in the U.S. Canada has strategies for addressing homelessness that are adopted at the national, territorial, and local levels to address the needs of different sub-populations.
In 2019, the Government of Canada released Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy, which contains a comprehensive plan for addressing the homelessness crisis in the nation.
Reaching Home is designed to:
- support the goals of the National Housing Strategy
- support the most vulnerable Canadians in maintaining safe, stable and affordable housing
- reduce chronic homelessness nationally by 50% by March 2028
Reaching Home is investing $5 billion over nine years (2019 – 2028) to address homelessness.
The plan emphasizes Housing First approaches, homelessness prevention, and programming designed to meet the needs of different vulnerable populations. Those populations include youth, women and children fleeing violence, marginalized racial and ethnic groups and veterans.
Working to End Canadian Homelessness
Outside of the government, a few primary non-profit organizations exist to fight homelessness in Canada. Among them are the Canadian Alliance for End Homelessness (CAEH) and the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH). These organizations drive advocacy, education, and collaborative networks of partners working at ending Canadian homelessness.
For single adults experiencing chronic homelessness, housing campaigns exist in Canada similar to those in the U.S. In 2025, the Housing Canada Coalition, made up of four leading Canadian organizations from across the housing sector, launched the End the Housing Game campaign.
To respond to youth homelessness, government agencies and advocates in Canada promote prevention and early intervention strategies that help young people avert or exit homelessness as quickly as possible.
Canada also has campaigns and programs to address Indigenous homelessness.
Want to learn more? The COH has educational resources on homelessness available here: http://homelesshub.ca/education/students; and in-depth information on solutions to homelessness here: http://homelesshub.ca/solutions.
