Exploring Homelessness in Small-To-Mid-Sized and Large Canadian Cities: An Analysis of the Canadian Housing Survey

Most research on homelessness in Canada has been undertaken in large cities, such as Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. This paper will explore levels of homelessness in small-to-mid-sized Canadian cities (50-500,000) compared to levels of homelessness in large cities/Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) with populations over 500,000. As part of a larger project, which is studying homelessness in three small-mid-sized Ontario cities, which is mainly based on qualitative methods, this article will analyze data from the Canadian Housing Survey for the years 2018 and 2021. The paper will focus on two themes. First, we will compare prevalence rates of homelessness in mid-size cities with rates in large Canadian CMAs. This will be followed by a bi-variate analysis exploring factors associated with homelessness in these two geographical groupings. The analysis will conclude with a multi-variate analysis assessing if the demographic characteristics of the respondents (gender, sexual orientation, age, education, and ethno-racial identity) predict a respondent’s history of homelessness, and whether or not these relationships differ between respondents living in Canadian CMAs compared to respondents residing in small-mid-size cities.