The federal government promised Thursday to end homelessness in Canada within a decade. In Toronto, the city that counted its unhoused residents most recently, 58% of them are Black, in a city where Black people are 10% of the population.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne called the plan one of the government’s “flagship” policies in the 2026 budget. It sets aside $11.2 billion over four years starting in 2027, and $17.8 billion over 10 years. Another $2 billion is for community mental health and addictions facilities. The stated goal is to “create the conditions to end homelessness,” a phrase that stops short of promising that nobody will be homeless.
The money is meant to build supportive and transitional housing. Ottawa would pay the capital costs. Provinces and territories would cover the running costs and services, from training to income support to health programs. Federal officials plan to negotiate those agreements before the spring 2027 economic update.
That division of labour is where Black Canadians have the most to lose. Provinces must sign on and pay for operations, and Ontario has not been a partner for Toronto. The City of Toronto’s 2024 Street Needs Assessment estimated 15,400 people were homeless last fall, up from about 7,300 in April 2021. It found Black residents were 58% of survey respondents, and Indigenous residents 9% against 3% of the city’s population.
The national picture is also unevenly shared. An estimated 65,000 people experienced homelessness in Canada’s 2025 count. Statistics Canada data from 2022 showed nearly one in eight households reporting a homelessness experience, rising to one in four among Indigenous people. Race-based breakdowns are patchy outside the big cities, which makes it easy for a national program to miss exactly the people the Toronto count found.
So far, the coverage of the plan does not say whether any of the $17.8 billion is aimed at Black communities, or whether provinces will have to report who gets housed. Without that, a program can hit its national numbers while Black Torontonians stay in shelters and encampments. The Toronto figures are the reason it should not.
A decade is long for a person sleeping outside this winter, and the first dollars do not flow until 2027. Ottawa should write targets for Black and Indigenous people into every agreement it signs with the provinces, and publish the results. The first test comes when those agreements are negotiated, before the spring update.
Have your say