Fewer encampments in Toronto in past year, but advocate says homelessness simply 'less visible'

The number of homeless encampments has declined across Toronto in the past year, according to city officials, but at least one advocate says the city has simply moved unhoused people out of sight.

City manager Paul Johnson says the drop in the number of encampments is due to work by city staff to move people indoors.

Johnson said at a budget committee meeting last week that as of Jan. 8, 48 city parks out of a total of more than 1,500 have "some level of an encampment," compared to 107 on Jan. 8, 2024.

"We are better today on January the 8th when we were on January the 8th in 2025 when it comes to encampments," Johnson said. "You can do the math on the reduction there."

An encampment is defined by the city as "any tent or structure that encroaches on a city park for the purpose of living or occupying a space."

The city said in a statement Wednesday that it has made "significant progress in reducing the number of encampments in Toronto thanks to factors like successful housing outcomes and enhanced street outreach and social services."

"Housing with appropriate supports remains the best solution to encampments. The City is committed to assisting people experiencing homelessness with their immediate needs, while also working towards long term solutions like housing."

City budget documents say the number of encampments in Toronto rose in 2024, but fell in 2025. In November 2024, the number of encampments was 539, while in December 2025, there were 196.

But Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig, a priest at St. Stephens-in-the-Fields Anglican church, said unhoused people are going to places where they are not visible by city staff. Her most recent book, Encampment, won the Toronto Book Award in October 2025.

"If you create a situation where people are highly motivated to go to places that are more hidden, to go to places where city staff can't find them, then yeah, they're not going to show up in the city count," Helwig said.

Helwig said the number of calls to the city's central intake phone line that are "unmatched to shelter" every night is slightly higher now than at this time in previous years. Helwig added that people are simply "more dispersed."

"I'm not convinced that the number of street homeless people has declined in any significant way," Helwig said. "I think what the city has succeeded in doing is making the problem less visible to housed people."

For three years, the church yard at St. Stephens in the Fields had an encampment where dozens of people were living. It was cleared in mid-October and is now fenced off with concrete blocks where the encampment used to be.

Helwig said the emergency shelter offered to the encampment residents was inadequate and most have remained homeless since they were forced to leave.