The Homeless Hub, developed by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, is the largest homelessness research library in the world. Building on the success of the Canadian Conference on Homelessness (2005), it was created to address the need for a single place to find information on homelessness. This project began with an understanding that different stakeholders (in government, academia and the social services sector) are likely to think about and utilize research in different ways. The website was built with these different audiences in mind.

When the Homeless Hub originally launched in 2007, it had 500 resources, a simple search engine and some original content. In 2018, it was redesigned in an effort to continue to be a place where people can access and share research, stories, and best practices. The Homeless Hub now has over 30,000 resources, including a number of plain-language reports, tools, templates and frameworks, designed to be accessible and useful to anyone working, researching or legislating on homelessness. Some of our most recent resources are focused on preventing homelessness, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and LGBTQ2S experiences of homelessness.

These works include:

  • An update to the Canadian Definition of Homelessness and typology, intended to improve understanding, measurement and responses to homelessness in Canada by providing a common ‘language’ for addressing this complex problem.
  • A New Direction: a Framework for Homelessness Prevention, which provides the language and clarity to begin a conversation about homelessness prevention in Canada on a national scale. It’s based on the idea that any possibilities of homelessness, and their traumatizing effects, should be stopped before they begin.
  • The Point-in-Time (PiT) Count Toolkit to help communities in Canada plan and implement accurate PiT counts.
  • The first definition of Indigenous homelessness in Canada that incorporates Indigenous culture and worldview, as well as an understanding of Indigenous Peoples’ unique experience of homelessness.
  • The book, Where Am I Going to Go? addresses the specific needs of LGBTQ2S youth experiencing homelessness in Canada and the U.S.
  • THIS is Housing First for Youth (HF4Y): A Program Model Guide, a comprehensive document with the aim to clarify how HF4Y can be be implemented on the ground.
  • The What Would it Take? Youth Across Canada Speak out on Youth Homelessness Prevention report which outlines the need for youth homelessness prevention efforts, while making sure that young people’s voices are heard Solutions-focused content that highlight evidence-based interventions and initiatives that can contribute to ending homelessness.

What sets us apart from other online libraries or databases is our approach to the material. Our main objective is to make research more accessible (both easy to obtain, and easy to understand); to take evidence-based research, present it in clear language and with practical applications and recommendations.

We believe that solutions to homelessness should be driven by research. Thanks to the Homeless Hub, homelessness research is now available to everyone.

Contribute to the Homeless Hub

If you have research, reports, videos or any other types of homelessness-related resources and are interested in adding them to the Homeless Hub library, contact us.

Homeless Hub Blog

The Homeless Hub’s blog distills research from the COH, our partners, community members, students and academics. Contact us to pitch your blog idea.
The analysis and interpretations contained in the blog posts are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.