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n 20 years of studying homelessness, Carol Kauppi has observed three disturbing trends: the number of people experiencing homelessness is growing, they’re more visible, and Canadians have become more accepting of the problem.

“Things have gotten worse,” said Dr. Kauppi, who is director of the Centre for Research in Social Justice and Policy at Laurentian University. Homelessness used to be hidden, with people existing more on the margins of communities, she noted. “Now we see the encampments, people panhandling on the streets and in shopping centres.” Meanwhile, the public “seems to have accepted this as part of our society. How can that be, in a country so affluent?”

Getting to the root causes of homelessness is “absolutely urgent,” she said. That’s the focus of On the Move, a study launched in partnership with York University’s Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH). As part of that study, Dr. Kauppi is examining homelessness through the eyes of 60 Indigenous and 60 non-Indigenous people between the ages of 13 and 30 in the northern Ontario cities of Sudbury, Timmins and Cochrane. Information gleaned from these interviews will feed into a larger, nationwide project called Making the Shift, on prevention and providing solutions.

While research on what impact the pandemic has had on the homeless is still emerging, Dr. Kauppi is mostly hearing about housing affordability. “There’s a huge gap between what people are either able to earn, or what they receive from government benefits,” and the rising cost of living, she said. “People simply don’t have enough to make ends meet.”

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