Where every number came from
We publish this because advocacy has a credibility problem and we would rather not add to it. Found something wrong? Tell us and we’ll correct it in public.
Homelessness counts
Every figure is listed with its publisher and the period it covers. Where we did the math ourselves, the inputs are shown so you can redo it.
| Claim | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 572 people experiencing homelessness in Kingston | January 2026 | Path Home Kingston, By-Name List |
| Peak of 633 | August 2024 | Path Home Kingston |
| 390 people chronically homeless | February 2026 | City of Kingston |
| 233 chronically homeless rising to 390 | March 2023 to March 2025 | United Way KFL&A, Reaching Home Community Homelessness Report, published October 2, 2025 |
| 67% increase in chronic homelessness | March 2023 to March 2025 | Our calculation: (390 − 233) ÷ 233 = 67.4% |
| More than 100 people living in encampments | 2025 to 2026 | City of Kingston |
| 483 people counted, up from 207 | November 2024 count, 2021 comparison | United Way KFL&A, 2024 Point-in-Time Count, released August 7, 2025 |
| 133% increase in the count | 2021 to 2024 | Our calculation: (483 − 207) ÷ 207 = 133.3% |
| 339 people in absolute homelessness, up from 81 | 2018 to 2024 | United Way KFL&A, 2024 Point-in-Time Count |
What people said in the 2024 count
All figures below come from the 288 people who agreed to be surveyed, out of 483 counted.
| Claim | Source |
|---|---|
| 96% named insufficient income as a barrier to housing | United Way KFL&A, 2024 Point-in-Time Count |
| 84% said rents were too high to afford | United Way KFL&A, 2024 Point-in-Time Count |
| 32% lost housing because of insufficient income | United Way KFL&A, 2024 Point-in-Time Count |
| 75% self-identified as experiencing a mental health issue, up from 65% in 2021 | United Way KFL&A, 2024 Point-in-Time Count |
| 35% named mental health as a barrier to housing | United Way KFL&A, 2024 Point-in-Time Count |
| 28% named substance use as a barrier to housing | United Way KFL&A, 2024 Point-in-Time Count |
| 26% identify as Indigenous | United Way KFL&A, 2024 Point-in-Time Count |
Rent and income
| Claim | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average rent: bachelor $1,198, one-bedroom $1,503, two-bedroom $1,763 | October 2025 | Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Rental Market Survey, Kingston CMA |
| Vacancy rate 2.4% | October 2025 | Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation |
| ODSP single person: $825 basic, $611 maximum shelter allowance | Current | Government of Ontario, ODSP Policy Directive 6.2 |
| Ontario Works single person: $343 basic, $390 maximum shelter allowance | Current | Government of Ontario / Income Security Advocacy Centre |
| Ontario minimum wage $17.60, rising to $17.95 on October 1, 2026 | 2026 | Government of Ontario |
| ODSP shelter allowance covers 40.7% of average one-bedroom rent | October 2025 | Our calculation: 611 ÷ 1,503 |
| $892 monthly gap on ODSP | October 2025 | Our calculation: 1,503 − 611 |
| Ontario Works shelter allowance covers 25.9% | October 2025 | Our calculation: 390 ÷ 1,503 |
| $1,113 monthly gap on Ontario Works | October 2025 | Our calculation: 1,503 − 390 |
| Total ODSP income is $67 below average one-bedroom rent | October 2025 | Our calculation: 1,503 − 1,436 |
| Average one-bedroom rent is 2.05 times total Ontario Works income | October 2025 | Our calculation: 1,503 ÷ 733 |
| Full-time minimum wage worker spends about 60% of take-home pay on the average one-bedroom | 2026 | Our calculation: $17.60 × 40 hrs × 52 wks ÷ 12 = $3,050.67/month gross, roughly $2,500 after 2026 federal and Ontario income tax, CPP and EI; 1,503 ÷ 2,500 |
| The average one-bedroom asks for about $5,010 a month in take-home income at the 30% affordability standard — roughly an $85,000 salary in Ontario | October 2025 | Our calculation: 1,503 ÷ 0.30 = $5,010/month; an $85,000 salary nets about $5,017/month after 2026 federal and Ontario income tax, CPP and EI |
Social housing
| Claim | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1,654 households on the waitlist | December 31, 2024 | City of Kingston, Housing and Homelessness Annual Report 2024 |
| 920 applications received, 127 households housed | 2024 | City of Kingston, Housing and Homelessness Annual Report 2024 |
| Two-thirds of the waitlist on social assistance: 44% ODSP, 23% Ontario Works | 2024 | City of Kingston, Housing and Homelessness Annual Report 2024 |
| Average wait of 6.5 years for a one-bedroom, some over 14 years | 2023 | City of Kingston |
| Need for 4,900 units below $1,000/month, 2,300 below $750, 400 housing solutions for people currently homeless | Current | City of Kingston, Housing Needs Assessment |
| Households under $15,800/year can afford about $395/month in shelter costs | Current | City of Kingston, Housing Needs Assessment |
Encampments, water and sanitation
| Claim | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| City procedure lists street outreach, shelter referral, the Integrated Care Hub, medical care and storage, and does not include water, washrooms or garbage collection | Current | City of Kingston, Homelessness Services |
| Six hours notice to leave | Current | City of Kingston, Homelessness Services |
| “A rights-based approach requires access to basic services, such as clean water, sanitation facilities, electricity, and heat” | December 15, 2022 | Ontario Human Rights Commission |
| Kingston shelters run at 80 to 100% occupancy on any given night and turn people away | Current | City of Kingston, Homelessness Services |
| OHRC wrote to Kingston Council urging it to drop the daytime dismantling requirement | May 1, 2024 | Ontario Human Rights Commission |
| “Most encampments lack necessities such as clean water, bathrooms, a place to shower, or secure storage for belongings” | 2024 | Federal Housing Advocate, Final Report of the Review into Encampments |
| Call to Action 4(c) on access to water, food, sanitation, heating and cooling, healthcare and harm reduction | 2024 | Federal Housing Advocate, Final Report of the Review into Encampments |
| “Forced encampment evictions make people more unsafe and expose them to a greater risk of harm and violence” | 2024 | Federal Housing Advocate, Final Report of the Review into Encampments |
| Court found human waste “could have easily been addressed had the Region facilitated earlier access” to washrooms | 2023 | Regional Municipality of Waterloo v. Persons Unknown, 2023 ONSC 670 |
| Waterloo Region provides waste disposal, portable toilets and a drop-in space with water, showers and laundry | 2026 | Waterloo Region encampment services |
| Applying Kingston’s parks camping ban to homeless people violates section 7 of the Charter; City withdrew its appeal | November 24, 2023 | The Corporation of the City of Kingston v. Doe, 2023 ONSC 6662 |
Substance use and drug policy
| Claim | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| “Addiction is not a choice. It is a treatable medical condition yet many people affected by addiction face stigma” | Page modified July 13, 2026 | Health Canada |
| “Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences” | Adopted September 15, 2019 | American Society of Addiction Medicine, reproduced verbatim by CAMH |
| “SUD is not a moral failing or a choice. Like cancer, it does not discriminate” | 2021 | Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction with CAPSA |
| Genes and epigenetics account for between 40 and 60 percent of a person’s risk of addiction | Updated March 2026 | US National Institute on Drug Abuse |
| KFL&A opioid death rate 24.5 per 100,000 against an Ontario rate of 16.8 | 2022 | KFL&A Public Health, 2023 Annual Report |
| Local opioid deaths rose from 12 or fewer a year before 2016 to 42 in 2020 | 2016 to 2020 | Parent S, Buttemer S, Philpott J, Moore K. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada, 2023;43(2):62–72 |
| KFL&A Public Health merged into Southeast Public Health; overdose surveillance “is currently in development” | Merger January 1, 2025; checked July 2026 | Southeast Public Health |
| Ontario opioid deaths: 2,484 peak in 2021, 2,644 in 2023, 2,266 in 2024, 1,398 preliminary in 2025 | 2021 to 2025 | Office of the Chief Coroner via Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, data effective May 7, 2026 |
| Canadian supervised consumption sites responded to about 49,000 overdoses and drug-related emergencies with no reported fatalities on site | 2017 to June 2023 | Health Canada, Health Infobase |
| More than 58,444 overdoses reversed; no confirmed overdose death in a supervised consumption site in Canada or internationally | January 2017 to May 2024 | Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, September 2024 |
| Among 1,065 people using Insite, median injecting history 15.9 years, one person reported a first injection at the site | 2007 | Kerr T et al., American Journal of Public Health, 2007;97(7):1228–30 |
| Public injecting, discarded syringes and injection-related litter fell significantly after Insite opened | 2004 | Wood E et al., CMAJ, 2004;171(7):731–734 |
| Toronto’s 277 Victoria Street site managed 4,149 overdoses with zero deaths | Site lifetime to March 31, 2025 | CRISM Ontario / CAMH, December 2025 |
| After closure, discarded needles rose 550% and harm reduction equipment 588%; 40% of tracked former clients overdosed within 100 metres | 2025 | CRISM Ontario / CAMH, December 2025 |
| Kingston’s Consumption and Treatment Services site closes September 30, 2026; HART Hub opens October 1, 2026 | Announced April 10, 2026 | City of Kingston |
| Kingston is one of five supervised consumption sites still operating in Ontario | Page modified July 17, 2026 | Health Canada |
Housing First evidence and costs
| Claim | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| At Home/Chez Soi: $110 million trial, 2,148 participants, five cities | October 2009 to June 2013 | Mental Health Commission of Canada, National Final Report |
| 62% of Housing First participants housed all of the time versus 31% receiving usual services | Final six months of study | Mental Health Commission of Canada, National Final Report |
| 16% of Housing First participants housed none of the time versus 46% of comparison group | Final six months | Mental Health Commission of Canada, National Final Report |
| Two-thirds of participants reported substance-related problems at baseline | 2009 to 2013 | Mental Health Commission of Canada, National Final Report |
| Substance use outcomes improved similarly in both groups | 2009 to 2013 | Mental Health Commission of Canada, National Final Report |
| Monthly cost per person: social housing $613, shelter bed $2,100, long-term care $3,960, correctional bed $4,300, hospital bed $13,500 | 2017 | Office of the Auditor General of Ontario |
| A hospital bed costs 22 times what social housing costs | 2017 | Our calculation: 13,500 ÷ 613 = 22.0 |
| Toronto could save $60 million a year by permanently housing 3,000 people currently using emergency shelters | 2020 | City of Toronto analysis, cited by the Auditor General of Ontario |
| Housing First produced 151 additional days of stable housing per person and offset about two-thirds of its cost | 2020 | Psychiatric Services, peer-reviewed analysis |
What we don’t claim
Some things get repeated locally that we could not verify. They are not on this site.
That the City shut off water at Belle Park. Contemporaneous reporting on the August 2020 service removal describes temporary power, portable toilets and dumpsters. We found no record of a water supply being installed or removed. The case for water access on this site is built on what the City’s current procedure omits, which is documented.
That Kingston has declared a state of emergency on homelessness. It has not. Hamilton and London have.
A current population figure for Belle Park. The most recent we found is roughly 30 people, from October 2024.
A specific number of people shelters have to turn away. Kingston does not publish one. The City does acknowledge that shelters run at 80 to 100% occupancy and that people get turned away. Getting that number published is one of our asks, because without it nobody can argue for the funding shelters are owed.