The City conducted its sixth Streets Needs Assessment (SNA) in October 2024, working collaboratively with community partners in the homelessness and allied sectors.
The Street Needs Assessment is a city-wide point-in-time count and survey of people experiencing homelessness that is used to inform evidence-based service planning and programming across the homelessness sector. Results from the 2024 SNA will be published in Q2 2025.
The City and other municipalities are required to conduct the Street Needs Assessment as a condition of federal Reaching Home funding.
The main objectives of the SNA are to:
Implementation of the 2024 Street Needs Assessment would not have been possible without the support and participation of City staff and partners from across the homelessness service system. The 2024 SNA included people who were staying:
The methodology used did not include people experiencing hidden homelessness, such as people temporarily staying with friends or family.
Data collected through the SNA will help inform the City’s 2025-2030 Strategic Plan for homelessness services, which is being developed by the City’s Toronto Shelter & Support Services Division.
Previous Street Needs Assessments have helped to improve program and service delivery, such as the creation of an Indigenous funding stream with a 20 per cent allocation of funding, new shelter development, and priority populations for housing benefit programs.