Local charity says Ottawa's homeless population has grown to 3,000

More than 80,000 people in Ontario were homeless last year

Canadian Press

Published Apr 09, 2025 • 1 minute read

A homeless person sleeps in a tent which is set up at the entrance of Zara at the Rideau Centre in Ottawa on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. Photo by Tony Caldwell

An Ottawa charity says the number of homeless people in the city has grown to 3,000 this year.

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Ottawa Mission CEO Peter Tilley says more than 500 of them are living on the streets.

He says the homeless shelter returned to full capacity last year for the first time since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tilley says more than one in five people who seek help from his organization are asylum seekers, although the number of asylum seekers in the city is starting to decrease.

The City of Ottawa said in March that it would not build temporary shelters to house asylum seekers because their numbers were declining and because of concerns that the shelters would not be ready for winter.

More than 80,000 people in Ontario were homeless last year, according to a report from the province’s municipalities.

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