The figure shows two distinct periods. From 1992 to 2008, the number of people experiencing homelessness on the night of the count increased very quickly and by 2008 it was over five times what it was in 1992. To put it differently, during a period of very rapid population growth, the number of people experiencing homelessness grew at an even faster rate. Since 2008, the number of people experiencing homelessness, measured per 10,000 Calgarians, has fallen by 46%. That is impressive and we should celebrate the efforts of the Calgary Homeless Foundation and all the agencies with which it works to reduce homelessness.
But let's be careful to properly interpret what we are seeing. One should not look at the first graph and conclude the issue of homelessness currently only involves the 2,782 people identified in the PiT count conducted on September 27, 2022. No. The problem is much larger than that.
Homelessness is dynamic. It is not always the same people experiencing homelessness night after night. If another PiT count were conducted the week after the 2022 count, many of those counted would have been different people. People move in and out of homelessness on a regular basis. Research at the School of Public Policy and elsewhere shows that for the majority of people, the experience of homelessness is a short and rare occurrence. Someone counted on the night of the PiT count may not have been homeless the day before and may not be homeless in the near future. Yes, there are certainly people counted on the night of the PiT count who are homeless day after day after day. But the PiT does not identify who those people are.
To understand the size of the homelessness problem, we need other measures that can supplement the information provided by a PiT count. An important source of information comes from the operators of homeless shelters who provide data on the number of people using their shelters each and every night. This allows researchers to identify who is staying in homeless shelters for long periods of time and who is not. But these measures miss people whose experience with homelessness does not involve the use of emergency shelters, namely, the rough sleepers, the couch surfers, people in jail and hospitals, and all those currently homed but at high risk of homelessness. So, these data also only reveal part of the puzzle.