Grey County highlights local response to growing homelessness challenge

Grey County is highlighting new data from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association (OMSSA) on homelessness in Ontario and the local efforts underway to address the challenge.

Nearly 85,000 Ontarians experienced homelessness in 2025, up eight per cent from 2024 and 50 per cent since 2021.

In Grey County over the last year, 143 households moved into housing opportunities, 68 returned from housing into homelessness, and 151 individuals were newly identified as homeless, including 30 youth. With this movement, the By-Name List showed 155 active households at the end of 2025, a slight decrease from the previous year. Though rural homelessness across the province grew by more than 30 per cent last year, Grey County has remained relatively stable.

Grey County has been working collaboratively with partners including the Canadian Mental Health Association Grey Bruce, Brightshores Health System, United Way of Bruce Grey, OSHaRE, Grey Bruce Public Health, Safe 'N Sound and others to provide coordinated support and housing solutions.

"Our community partners are doing incredible work to support people experiencing homelessness," said Grey County Warden Andrea Matrosovs. "We've made real progress locally, but addressing the root causes will require collaboration between all levels of government."

The Supportive Outreach Services (SOS) program in Grey County has provided over 12,000 services to community members who are unhoused or insecurely housed since launching in 2021. SOS was recently featured at the national State of Canada's Cities Summit in Ottawa as a model for collaborative community care.

Grey County also directly operates short-term emergency housing, which has supported over 375 households and helped 176 households transition to permanent housing in the past year. However, demand for affordable housing continues to grow. The County's affordable housing waitlist has grown from 2,230 in 2024 to 2,545 in 2025 - a 12 per cent increase compared to four per cent the previous year.

Without significant intervention, AMO projects that homelessness in Ontario could double by 2035. The association is recommending long-term investments in affordable housing, mental health and addictions services, and income supports, along with better coordination between all levels of government to maximize impact.

The full AMO report, Municipalities Under Pressure One Year Later: An Update on the Human and Financial Cost of Ontario's Homelessness Crisis, is available at amo.on.ca.

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For media inquiries contact Katrina Peredun, communications officer, at communications [at] grey.ca (communications[at]grey[dot]ca) or 519-370-7064.