Housing and homelessness lead Ottawa residents’ municipal priorities: Nanos Survey

Nanos Research Survey for The Ottawa Mission shows that concerns have grown by almost 10% since 2019 as homelessness and related conditions reach catastrophic levels

Ottawa, ON – As The Ottawa Mission prepares for winter and an anticipated increase in vulnerable community members seeking support across its 29 programs, the shelter is urging all levels of government to work together to address catastrophic levels of homelessness, food insecurity, mental health distress and substance use.

The shelter released a public opinion survey by Nanos Research showing that Ottawa residents most often rank housing and homelessness as the top priority for the current municipal government at 38%, an increase from 29% in 2019.

“Concerns about housing and homelessness far outstrip policing at 22% and light rail/transportation at 19% respectively. This is perhaps not surprising given that 56% of Ottawa residents believe that the people they care about have at least a small risk of becoming homeless, which has increased from 46% in 2019,” noted Émilie Bossard, Data Analyst for Nanos Research.

More broadly, more than nine in ten Ottawa residents believe that homelessness in Canada has a serious (85%) or somewhat serious (7%) impact on those individuals affected. Likewise, most Ottawa residents say it has a serious (59%) or somewhat serious (30%) impact on Canada as a country. Both findings remain consistent with findings from 2019.

Ottawa Mission CEO Peter Tilley noted the devastating impacts of homelessness and concurrent conditions on the shelter and the broader community. “Ottawa is a compassionate city that supports our most vulnerable citizens. But homelessness, food insecurity, substance use and mental health distress have reached far beyond an emergency to now catastrophic levels. We continue to operate at over 100% capacity, with every shelter bed full and people sleeping on mats in our chapel and chairs in our lounge. We’re also dealing with a record number of overdoses since the closure of the remaining supervised consumption sites in Ottawa. And this is the fourth consecutive year that we’ve served over a million meals to clients at our shelter and through our food truck program. Last week, we shattered our previous record for Thanksgiving meals by providing 19,684 meals – or almost 1,300 more than in 2025.”

Food insecurity is highlighted in the Nanos Research survey, with respondents estimating that about one in three Ottawa households cannot afford healthy food, which is slightly higher than the 2024 Ottawa Public Health estimate of 25.7%. In 2019, OPH estimated that 15.3% of households were food insecure.

The perceived causes of homelessness are also highlighted in the Nanos Research survey, with noticeable shifts in public opinion since the previous Nanos survey for The Mission in 2019. “Fifty-four percent of Ottawa residents rank physical or mental health conditions or addictions as the biggest contributor to homelessness, which is down from 62% in 2019. Now nearly one in four, or 23% rank a lack of affordable housing first, an increase from 17% in 2019,” noted Émilie Bossard.

This comes as no surprise to The Mission given that the average rent for an apartment in Ottawa is now more than $2,100 per month, effectively making it impossible for anyone on disability or income support or working in a low to medium wage position to afford a unit. Despite an extremely challenging rental market, The Mission successfully housed 165 clients during its last fiscal year.

“It’s very frustrating for us at The Mission to see former clients we’ve worked with to find housing for these clients, only to have them return to our shelter due to factors like renovictions and demovictions. We commend city council for passing its renoviction bylaw earlier this spring. But we need to do much more, including strengthening this bylaw and returning the municipal budget allocation for new affordable and supportive housing to $30 million per year,” Peter Tilley added.

While respondents to the Nanos Research surveys stated that housing and homelessness should be the top priority for municipal council, they also noted the need for governments to work together to address this issue. “In terms of the top groups or institutions that should be responsible for dealing with homelessness, 19% ranked the federal government, 17% ranked municipal governments and 16% provincial governments as number one, while 42 per cent say all of them should be responsible. Five per cent believe it should be up to the family and friends of those who are homeless, while one per cent ranked charitable organizations first,” Émilie Bossard noted.

Despite respondents noting the need for governments to assume more responsibility for addressing homelessness as opposed to charities and other not-for-profits, Tilley noted the reverse trend that has worsened over the past several years. “Social service organizations and charities are bearing an increasing burden of trying to meet the needs of more vulnerable community members. Our own fundraising budget has almost doubled over the past 10 years to try to meet this need. We do what we can, but this trajectory is not sustainable and cannot continue. Unless governments at all levels step up their efforts to work together to find solutions, things will get even worse,” Peter Tilley concluded.

About The Ottawa Mission
Since 1906, The Ottawa Mission has been serving those who are homeless, hungry and lost by providing food, clothing, shelter and skills. In 2025-2026, The Ottawa Mission provided emergency shelter to an average of 188 men every night and served an average of 3,352 meals every day.  The Ottawa Mission also provides to men and women health services, mental health and addiction treatment programs, hospice care, dental services, housing services, educational support, job training, spiritual care, and clothing to thousands in need in our community. In September 2020, The Ottawa Mission marked the one millionth hour that the shelter has been in existence since its founding in 1906. In 2019, the Mission became a housing-focused shelter reflective of its commitment to a home for everyone as a human right with the launch of a new housing department.

Methodology: Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (cell and landlines) random telephone survey of 815 Ottawa residents, 18 years of age or older, from September 25 to October 6, 2026. The results were statistically checked and weighted by age and gender using the latest Census information and the sample is geographically stratified to be representative of Ottawa. The margin of error for a random survey of 815 Ottawa residents is ±3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The research was commissioned by Ottawa Mission and was conducted by Nanos Research.

FOR INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Aileen Leo
Director of Communications
T: 613.234.1144 x 305
C:613-712-3092
E-mail: aleo@ottawamission.com