Indigenous people make up over three-quarters of homeless population in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Taylor Adair says she isn't surprised the majority of people in Thunder Bay, Ont., experiencing homelessness are Indigenous, but the numbers are still disheartening.

"There's a lot of hidden homelessness, a lot of overcrowding in some of these situations as well that [the] community has really brought forward to us, and that we see daily in our front-line work," said Adair, who is branch manager of housing at the Ontario Native Women's Association in Thunder Bay.

A point-in-time count in the city found 557 people experiencing homelessness, 78 per cent of which were Indigenous. The count was done over a 24-hour period the first weekend of October and was overseen by the Lakehead Social Planning Council (LSPC).

"We're seeing an epidemic of homelessness from Thunder Bay, and this data proves it," said Bonnie Krysowaty, co-ordinator of the Poverty Reduction Strategy and researcher/program manager at the LSPC.

People experiencing homelessness were surveyed at three locations where they frequently access services: the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre, Elevate NWO, and People Advocating for Change Through Empowerment (PACE).

Indigenous people made up just over 14 per cent of Thunder Bay's population in the 2021 census.

Nationally, while Indigenous people comprise about five per cent of Canada's population, they represent nearly a third of those experiencing homelessness.

"[There are] definitely systemic barriers that Indigenous communities face, definitely a lack of culturally-safe and Indigenous gender-based shelter options," said Adair.

Other minority groups – those who identified as Arabian, Asian, Black and Sri Lankan – made up 13 per cent of respondents in the city's count.

"Specific cultural supports that are appropriate, safe – I think that's really important, because that makes offering people supports and services and connecting them to housing a lot easier," Krysowaty said.

The results also highlight some common issues facing the city's unhoused population.

For example, about 43 per cent of those surveyed have spent time in foster care or a group home. Of those, more than 30 per per cent said Child Protection Services were not helpful in their transition out of the system.

Substance use, problems with a partner, and not having enough income were the top three reasons why people said they lost their housing.

Thunder Bay continues to be among communities hit hardest by the opioid crisis in Ontario, seeing the second-highest opioid death rate in the province in the first half of 2024, according to Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner.