We’re Building Housing, So Why is the Crisis Getting Worse?

It’s one of the most common and frustrating questions we hear: with new housing projects announced, why is the homelessness and the housing emergency in Ottawa getting worse, not better?

The answer is complex. It’s not just about having a roof; it’s about having the right supports to keep it. A crucial report from the City of Ottawa’s Auditor General, the 2024 Audit of Supportive Housing, helps us understand the root of the problem, namely:

A Bridge Built Halfway

Think of the journey out of homelessness as crossing a deep canyon. Supportive housing is the bridge designed to get people who need extra support safely to the other side—to a life of stability and healing. For that bridge to work, it needs to be complete and secure through ensuring both capital and operational funding.

The Bridge Structure (Capital Funding): This is the money to build the towers, lay the road deck, and maintain the structure. It’s the money for the physical building, comprising new homes and the acquisition of existing homes for supportive housing.

The Final, Connecting Span (Operational Funding): This is the final section of the bridge that actually connects to the other side. This represents the funding for the case managers, mental health counsellors, addiction and healthcare staff who provide the vital support that residents with ongoing needs require to cross over to stability and remain within their own homes.

The Auditor General’s report found that supportive housing funding in Ottawa is completely disconnected. This problem originates at the provincial level, where the housing and health ministries operate in separate silos. The City of Ottawa does not receive health funding directly; instead, supportive housing providers must partner with health organizations to access it from the Ministry of Health. This lack of integration between building funds and support funds means that even with meaningful work being done, these programs cannot meet their clients’ needs without provincial action to integrate the system. The result is a bridge that looks impressive but stops halfway across the chasm.

The people who need the bridge the most, those with the most complex health needs, are often left stranded because the bridge can’t actually get them to safety.

The Bottleneck in Our Shelters

This systemic failure has a direct, devastating impact on the work we do at the Ottawa Mission. As we detailed in our Still Waiting report, our shelter has been operating at over 100% capacity for years. We are in a constant state of crisis, placing sleeping mats on our chapel floor every single night. The reason for this is simple: there is a bottleneck.

After people who need additional support go through our programs such as Addiction and Trauma Services, they want to move on from the shelter, but they have nowhere to go. The capacity of the supportive housing system in Ottawa is insufficient and underfunded to meet their needs. This means people are staying in emergency shelters for far longer than they should, waiting for a spot to open up. As our report shows, this crisis is the direct result of decades of policy failures and inadequate investment in real, long-term housing solutions.

The Path Forward: Connecting the System

The Auditor General’s report gives us a clear diagnosis of the problem. It confirms what frontline agencies have known for years: building housing is only one part of the solution.

To truly solve this crisis, we need all levels of government to work together to create an integrated funding system. A system that ensures when we build a bridge, we fund the entire span. We need to build a system that supports the whole person, not just the building they live in.

Until then, we will all be left asking the same question, and people in our community will still be waiting for a place to call home.