Building on extensive community consultation, the City of Hamilton developed a three-year plan, Everyone has a Home: A Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness (2007).

In order to achieve this shared vision, the City of Hamilton’s plan to address homelessness identifies five outcomes:

• The entire community is engaged to address homelessness;

• A continuum of affordable housing that helps residents achieve their potential;

• Increase supports to help people obtain and maintain housing;

• Access to an adequate income; and,

• Efficient and effective use of community resources Since 2006, the City of Hamilton and the Social Planning and Research Council have collaborated to produce the report On Any Given Night which tracks various indicators of homelessness, particularly emergency shelter data. Collecting this kind of information allows government, social service and housing providers to identify gaps in services and undertake long range planning. It is also a way to keep the broader community informed about homelessness. Given the challenging economic times of the last several years, monitoring changes in the scope of poverty and homelessness in our community is critical.