Responding to homelessness
Everyone has a role to play in responding to homelessness in Guelph. As the City, we support the work of Guelph’s homeless-serving sector, providing funding to social agencies for street outreach and activating the extreme weather response to support vulnerable people in our community. We also respond to reports about encampments on public and private land with a human rights approach that’s aimed at helping people connect to the support they need.
Homelessness in Guelph
During the 2021 Everyone Counts Point-in-Time count in Guelph-Wellington, the County of Wellington estimated that at least 270 people were experiencing homelessness. Addressing homelessness is a tough social issue. It takes cooperation between distinct levels of government, community organizations, and other partners to provide support and address issues of homelessness.
We all have a role in addressing homelessness
We can all take steps to help address homelessness. Individuals can help by volunteering for community organizations, making donations to those organizations, or advocating to all levels of government for better resources to address the root causes of homelessness and create more support.
Wellington County
The Province has designated the County of Wellington to lead programs aimed at preventing homelessness in Guelph and Wellington County. Learn more about the County’s approach to homelessness and housing stability.
City of Guelph
Here is how the City helps address homelessness in Guelph:
- We provide annual funding to Wellington County to fund provincially legislated social housing services
- We provide funding to organizations and agencies that provide services to support people experiencing homelessness
- Advocating to higher levels of government for more and better resources.