The City of Windsor has released preliminary results from the 2018 Point in Time Homeless Enumeration.

The report showed 197 people are experiencing homelessness, a two per cent decrease from 2016.

The city participated in Ontario’s homeless enumeration, the first province-wide count of its kind in Canada, during the week of April 16, 2018.

The event was coordinated with the Government of Canada’s Point in Time Count and in collaboration with the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness’ 20K Homes Campaign Registry Week. The project was funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Homelessness Partnering Strategy. 

This was the second Point in Time (PiT) Count in Windsor-Essex, with the first count-taking place in 2016.  The 2018 PiT was led by the City of Windsor in partnership with the Homeless Coalition of Windsor-Essex and assisted by over 20 community agencies.

“Without good data, we simply cannot make the right decisions,” says Debbie Cercone, the executive director of housing and children’s services for Windsor.

“By conducting a Point-in-Time count every two years, we will be able to better understand homelessness in Windsor-Essex and measure our progress in achieving our goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2020.”

During this community event, over 200-trained volunteers were deployed throughout the city and county to ensure individuals, families and youth experiencing homelessness received an opportunity to be counted and surveyed. 

Over a period of three days, volunteers engaged with people experiencing homelessness in shelters, temporary accommodation and unsheltered locations, such as sidewalks, parks and other public places.

Preliminary results from the 2018 Point-in-Time Count in Windsor-Essex:

-197 people experiencing homelessness - a 2% decrease from 2016.

-68% of people experiencing homelessness identify as male.

-53% of people experiencing homelessness are between the ages of 25 and 49 years old, 27% are under 24 years old, 17% are over 50 years old and 3% are over 65 years old.

-5% of those experiencing homelessness are families.

-22% of those experiencing homelessness identified as Aboriginal / Indigenous.

-56% of respondents are experiencing homelessness for the first time and 46% have been homeless for six months or more.