‘Jarring’ increase: Over 650 unhoused people counted in city
One day in October, 652 people were experiencing homelessness in Northwestern Ontario’s largest city, according to data collected by the Lakehead Social Planning Council (LSPC) and partners.
That number is “the highest that we’ve ever seen in Thunder Bay for a point-in-time count,” LSPC director Bonnie Krysowaty told Newswatch on Wednesday.
The LSPC led the 2025 “point-in-time count,” which provides what the agency calls a “numerical snapshot of homelessness in our community.”
The Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre and Lakehead University also participated in collecting data on homelessness in the city on Oct. 9, 2025.
Of the 652 individuals identified as homeless on that date, 198 were in emergency shelters, 154 were in transitional housing and 130 were staying in an encampment.
Others were in a domestic violence shelter, in jail, or staying outside in a location other than an encampment.
“What’s alarming about that is that we didn’t reach out to people that may be couch surfing, perhaps — staying somewhere where it’s not a fixed address but they actually were in a house overnight,” said Krysowaty.
“They’re still experiencing homelessness that may only last for one or two nights … but that’s a really big issue.”
One significant finding is that “almost half of the people in corrections actually have no fixed address,” Krysowaty said.
She said it’s also noteworthy that nearly 180 of the 652 locally unhoused people in Thunder Bay on Oct. 9 were staying outdoors, either in encampments or at other locations.
Last year’s point-in-time count found 557 homeless individuals in the city on an October day.
This year’s increase of 95 was “pretty jarring,” Krysowaty said.
Similar counts have been conducted across Canada, and the results will be compiled and publicly reported by the federal government.
The Kenora District Services Board (KDSB) conducted its own 2025 point-in-time count on Oct. 14-17, throughout the Kenora District.
A KDSB spokesperson said the study’s results are not yet available.
The District of Rainy River Services Board did not conduct a point-in-time count this year.
A representative for the Rainy River board said it is not required to do a homelessness enumeration because it doesn’t use the federal Homeless Individuals and Families Information System.- tbnewswatch.com
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Four points:
- ‘homeless’ and ‘unhoused’ do not mean the same thing.
- The LSPC and its partners benefit financially by making sure the count is as high as possible.
- The fact that there is zero expectation of any of the ‘650 unhoused people’, in return for the support given by the working taxpaying citizens, to improve their situation. Either through education or training. There are a large number of able-bodied perfectly healthy people that need to be weeded out. Quid Pro Quo. Something for something. A hand up not a hand out. Welfare recipient s not a career.
- There used to be a thing called ‘shame’. There used to be a thing called ‘pride’. Those things no longer exist in our society. That is too bad.
Cut back on the support and that number will decrease.