Homelessness study in Frontenac County

Jeff Green | Jan 22, 2014

As part of a strategy to combat homelessness in Kingston and Frontenac County the Social Services Department of the City of Kingston undertook what they call a point in time inventory of the homeless populations in Kingston and a different kind of survey in Frontenac County.

In Kingston the inventory was done by sending a small army of volunteers out into the streets and alley-ways on one evening in October to find people who were sleeping out of doors and talk to them about their day-to-day lives.

The survey found 106 homeless people, although only those who were located on the streets and in shelters on that night were counted. In order to look at the homeless population in Frontenac County, another strategy needed to be developed, because it would be unrealistic to send volunteers combing the countryside looking for homeless people.

Instead, the housing department of the City of Kingston contacted social service agencies that work with the people in the county who are at risk of homelessness. These agencies include: Southern Frontenac Community Services, Northern Frontenac Community Services, Family & Children's Services, Frontenac Community Mental Health and Addictions Services, and Ontario Works. By canvassing their clients, it was determined that there are 42 people in Frontenac County who are homeless.

While only seven of that number are homeless in that they were living out of doors on the dates that the survey was conducted between (October 21 and November 1) the other 35 are what the preliminary report on the findings called “hidden homeless, meaning that they do not appear to be homeless; rather, they are couch surfing, doubled up with family, or in other arrangements that do not conform to the homeless stereotype.”

It should be noted that because of the different methodologies, the results for the City of Kingston and Frontenac County cannot be compared to each other in any meaningful way.

Of the homeless population in Frontenac County, a couple of details were highlighted in a preliminary media release from the City of Kingston Housing department in December. One is that in Frontenac County 40% of the homeless population identified are parents with an average of two children each, while in Kingston more of the homeless population is single. As well, in Frontenac County, 37% of the homeless population identified themselves as Aboriginal, when only 5% of the total population in the County identifies as Aboriginal.

Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) provides services to children, youth, adults and seniors and both the child and adult counsellors with the agency provided information for the study. Most of the other agencies that were consulted are affiliated with NFCS so the scope of the problem was not a surprise to the agency.

Don Amos, the executive director of NFCS, said that the problem of homelessness “is a major concern for our agency. It affects the children, youth, adults and seniors whom we serve and it is not just a trend; it has been a problem for a long time but the numbers are increasing.”

Amos said that his agency certainly welcomes this initiative by the City and looks forward to NFCS participating in the search for solutions in the coming months.

“Homelessness is harder to identify in a rural setting because it is not a matter of people sleeping on grates or under bridges, but the impacts are real and the solutions will have to be community-based,” he said.

A complete report on the point in time study of the homeless population in Kingston and Frontenac County will be released to the public in the coming weeks