Deaths of People Experiencing Homelessness

Homelessness is a complex issue in Toronto, affecting thousands of people each night. It has a long-lasting and devastating impact on some of the city’s most vulnerable people and contributes to health inequities.

Toronto Public Health (TPH) collects and reports data on deaths of people experiencing homelessness, including those in shelters, respite centres, or living outdoors. The data can be used to understand trends in mortality in the unhoused population and inform programs, services and policy development aimed at improving the health of people experiencing homelessness.

Deaths of People Experiencing Homelessness Dashboard

This dashboard provides the latest data available from the City of Toronto. Data are updated twice a year, typically in April and October. Toronto’s Shelter and Support Services’ (TSSS) reports on deaths of shelter residents and 24-hour respite site residents are part of TPH’s data and are included in the dashboard.

View Interactive Dashboard

Data are collected from four sources and are analyzed by TPH to rule out duplications.

The sources are:

  • Community Reports: Partner agencies and individuals serving unhoused communities submit reports to TPH through a secure online form;
  • Shelter Deaths: The City of Toronto’s TSSS division shares reports on Deaths of Shelter Residents;
  • Toronto Homeless Memorial: A monthly summary from the Toronto Homeless Memorial; and,
  • Coroner Data: Office of the Chief Coroner (OCC) for Ontario reports for coroner-investigated deaths among people identified by coroners as experiencing homelessness.
  • As of February 2024, the Office of the Chief Coroner (OCC) for Ontario is providing public health units with record-level data for coroner-investigated deaths in Ontario among people identified as experiencing homelessness. A review of these data confirmed that TPH’s previously reported numbers were incomplete and an undercount.
  • The OCC data is now part of TPH’s Deaths of People Experiencing Homelessness collection and reporting, offering a fuller view of death and causes. These more comprehensive data are reflected in the new dashboard that was developed and launched in early 2025, with data starting in 2022 (the earliest complete year of OCC data). The previous dashboard, without OCC data, is archived here.

    This initiative characterizes “homelessness” as:

    The situation of an individual or family without stable, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect, means and ability to acquire it. It is the result of systemic or societal barriers, a lack of affordable and suitable housing, the individual/household’s financial, mental, cognitive, behavioural, or physical challenges and/or racism and discrimination. (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2012).

    Someone who is temporarily staying with friends or family, or transitioning to new housing, but has experienced long periods without a permanent home, would be considered as experiencing homelessness.

    In the past, death data for people experiencing homelessness in Toronto was limited to City-funded shelter residents, providing an incomplete picture. To address this gap, in 2016, Toronto City Council passed a motion that directed “City staff to collect all relevant data related to the deaths of homeless individuals within and outside of homeless shelters.”

    Data collection for this initiative began on January 1, 2017. Through this initiative, data are collected for people experiencing homelessness who die while living on the street, at a friend’s place, at a shelter or other locations in Toronto.

    The goal is to provide a more accurate estimate of the numbers of deaths and causes of death for people experiencing homelessness in Toronto.  Understanding trends in mortality in the unhoused population can better inform programs, services and policy development aimed at improving the health of people experiencing homelessness.

    Deaths of Shelter Residents

    TSSS submits Death of Shelter Residents data to TPH and are included in this dashboard.