Policy Trade-Offs in Decisions on the Provision of Emergency Homeless Shelter Beds in Canada

Abstract

Why do some cities provide many emergency shelter beds while others do not? We interpret differences with respect to the supply of shelter beds as originating from alternative choices concerning a series of policy trade-offs. These trade-offs arise because of climate effects, prejudice, levels of poverty, and housing and labour market conditions affecting the rates of homelessness. Governments have policy levers they can adjust to respond to changes in most, if not all these conditions. One of these policy levers is the number of emergency shelter beds that are made available. But other policy responses are also possible. These include efforts to reduce poverty, policies designed to increase the stock of affordable housing, and policies to increase income support payments. Choosing to supply shelter beds over other policy responses reveals a preference for one set of societal outcomes over another. Using data describing conditions in 52 Canadian cities, we test six hypotheses describing why some communities choose to provide more homeless shelter beds than others.

Keywords

• homelessness
• poverty
• housing
• emergency shelters