$29-billion federal plan to 'end homelessness' in Canada emphasizes treatment | Daily Hive

New $29-billion federal plan to 'end homelessness' in Canada emphasizes adequate treatment and support services, not just housing

A Vancouver homeless man’s sign notes he was originally from Winnipeg. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Prime Minister Mark Carney is setting a 10-year goal to put Canada on a “path to end homelessness,” putting aside about $29 billion for a plan that combines housing construction with new specialized healthcare facilities for people with complex needs, rental housing assistance, and other community supports.

Outlined in the 2026 federal budget released yesterday, the strategy would see the Government of Canada help pay for the upfront capital cost of constructing buildings and facilities, while expecting the lower levels of government in the provinces to fund their ongoing operations and the services residents need to avoid homelessness.

The budget intends to completely reshape Canada’s current strategies in order to put the country on a path to “ending homelessness” within a decade — setting the conditions to do so. Achieving that goal would require cooperation among federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, as well as Indigenous partners, non-profit organizations, charities, businesses, and developers.

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“Canada has the resources, the people, and the will to end homelessness — but every level of government and each sector has a role to play. It requires forward-thinking action: stable housing and a comprehensive set of services — including health care, mental health and addictions treatment, crisis services, and other community supports. We are committed to changing how Canada addresses homelessness and supports those who are unhoused, because every Canadian should have the security of a warm home,” reads the budget.

“That is why Budget 2026 is putting significant federal resources toward helping create the conditions to end homelessness within 10 years. This is a call to action for every level of government, Indigenous partners, the private sector, and the not-for-profit sector to come together to reach this goal.”

The budget includes $11.2 billion over four years beginning in the 2027/2028 fiscal year, followed by $17.8 billion over the remaining six fiscal years. Overall, under the 10-year goal, this includes $2.36 billion in the 2027/2028 fiscal year, followed by $3.62 billion in 2028/2029 and $2.62 billion in each of 2029/2030 and 2030/2031.

The package brings together new initiatives and extensions of existing programs, including monthly help with rent for Canadians with low incomes.

“Tonight, thousands of Canadians will sleep in shelters or on the street, with none of the security or stability that adequate housing provides. We can do better. We must do better. And we will do better,” said François-Philippe Champagne, the federal minister of finance and national revenue, during his budget address yesterday.

“With Budget 2026, we are putting Canada on a path to end homelessness within 10 years. We will renew the Reaching Home program and the Veteran Homelessness Program. We will work with provinces, territories, and Indigenous partners to link housing with mental health, addiction, and community care services. Through Build Canada Homes, we will build more affordable housing. The investments we make today will define our society tomorrow.”

A shift to also focus on treatment, not just providing housing

Under the revamped approach, housing would be linked with services such as mental healthcare, addictions treatment, employment assistance, training, and income support. The aim is to help people find a home and address the circumstances that could otherwise leave them homeless again.

A major part of the package is an additional $10 billion through the federal government’s Build Canada Homes for new supportive housing and transitional housing across the country. This includes $3.6 billion over four years starting in 2027/2028, with another $6.4 billion in later years.

It is emphasized that federal funding would cover capital costs, such as construction. Provincial and territorial governments would be expected to pay for ongoing operations and services for residents.

Another $5 billion would establish an Integrated Supports Fund, which would also be achieved through Build Canada Homes. The federal government would provide $1.8 billion over four years beginning in 2027/2028, followed by $3.2 billion in later years.

This fund would back projects combining housing with healthcare and social services. It could help create supportive housing and transitional housing, convert existing buildings, and attract investment from businesses and charitable donors.

The budget also provides $2 billion over two years — beginning in 2027/2028 — for the Health Infrastructure Fund under the Build Communities Strong Fund to help build mental health and addictions treatment facilities. These facilities would help people receive the treatment they need before their conditions become part of the country’s mental health and addictions crisis.

Alongside those investments, the federal government is looking to extend two existing homelessness programs for another decade.

Reaching Home and the Veterans Homelessness Program would receive a combined $2.1 billion over three years beginning in 2028/2029, plus $4.4 billion in subsequent years. This funding would continue to support homelessness services and prevention efforts, including assistance specifically for veterans.

The Canada Housing Benefit would also be renewed for 10 years, with $1.7 billion over three years starting in 2028/2029 and another $3.9 billion in later years. The benefit provides monthly rental assistance to Canadians with low incomes, helping them find and keep housing.

The federal government’s new approach addresses a longstanding gap in Canada’s homelessness response: providing someone with a home does not, by itself, provide the treatment and daily assistance they may need to remain there.

The federal government’s previous “Housing First” policy and funding priorities first began in 2014 under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative administration, emphasizing getting people into permanent housing without requiring abstinence or participation in treatment beforehand. Although that previous model includes healthcare and individual support, a 2025 Mental Health Commission of Canada report identified inadequate funding, staffing challenges, and inconsistent implementation as barriers to delivering it effectively.

In British Columbia, for example, the outgoing BC NDP-led provincial government previously acknowledged that some people with severe mental health and addictions issues, brain injuries, and other complex conditions need more care than conventional supportive housing provides.

B.C.’s supportive housing standard is largely non-clinical. In 2022, the B.C. government created a new variation of supportive housing called complex care housing, which provides extensive wrap-around clinical and support services, with some of these complex care housing units situated within a portion of the supportive housing buildings.

In Metro Vancouver, residents and businesses near some supportive housing sites have blamed inadequate care, staffing, and oversight for crime, open drug use, public disorder, and sanitation problems spilling into surrounding neighbourhoods and commercial areas. These complaints — and fears of similar impacts elsewhere — have fuelled local opposition to new supportive housing and associated services, alongside demands for adequate mental health and addictions treatment, stronger security, and greater accountability from governments, health authorities, and the non-profit housing operators.

The federal government now explicitly connects its new housing investments with an expectation that the lower levels of government will strengthen funding for ongoing operations, healthcare, and other supports, and demonstrate results.

“Homelessness remains one of Canada’s most urgent social challenges. But homelessness is not inevitable. It is the result of gaps across housing, health, mental health, addictions, and social support systems,” reads the budget.

The federal budget points to Winnipeg as an early example of how the combined optimized housing and healthcare services model could work as a partnership between the federal and provincial governments. The federal budget announcement yesterday highlighted the agreement with Manitoba’s provincial government, and Prime Minister Carney and federal Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson were in Winnipeg today for the partnership’s formal announcement.

The partnership with Manitoba will bring over $1 billion in new capital spending through Build Canada Homes. This includes the Winnipeg Centre for Mental Health and Addictions, which will bring acute and outpatient care with permanent supportive housing, transitional housing, and wraparound services. Up to $800 million in funding will be provided to build 2,000 new units of supportive housing and transitional housing in Manitoba, with the provincial government agreeing to provide funding enabling a certain standard for ongoing healthcare and support services.

For other areas of the country where such issues are also acute, the federal government intends to work with other provincial governments on their separate housing agreements ahead of the federal Spring 2027 Economic Update.

“This work will align these agreements with the goal of putting Canada on a path to end homelessness in 10 years, protect existing non-market housing stock, take into consideration the expanded role of Build Canada Homes, and make responsibilities clearer for delivering affordable housing and targeted affordability supports,” reads the budget.

“As we increase capital investments, provinces and territories will be expected to strengthen funding for operations, health care, and wraparound supports, and to demonstrate progress against shared outcomes.”

How realistic is the goal of putting Canada on a path to “end homelessness”?

The federal budget’s repeated references to putting Canada on a path to “end homelessness” carry a familiar echo for Vancouver, the epicentre of Canada’s homelessness, mental health, and addictions crisis.

Leading the federal housing and homelessness portfolio is Minister Robertson, who served as Vancouver’s mayor from 2008 to 2018.

During his first mayoral campaign in 2008, Robertson promised to end street homelessness in Vancouver by 2015. Of course, that deadline passed without the goal being achieved.

It should be emphasized that a key distinction lies in how the goals are framed: Robertson’s 2008 promise was to end street homelessness in Vancouver by 2015, while the 2026 federal budget emphasizes creating the conditions to put Canada on a path toward ending homelessness within 10 years.

When asked by media during today’s press conference in Winnipeg why he believed the federal effort could succeed when his Vancouver vow went unfulfilled, Robertson pointed to insufficient funding and cooperation from the federal and provincial governments during his time as mayor.

“We did not have the support as a city. We set the goal, the federal and provincial governments were not coordinating, were not investing at the scale that was needed to solve the challenge in Vancouver,” said Robertson during today’s press conference in Winnipeg.

He said the severity of Vancouver’s homelessness crisis had motivated his decision to run for mayor. He pointed to the homeless shelters subsequently opened and operated by the city, along with the construction of 500 temporary modular homes in a single year — towards the end of this mayoral tenure — with provincial government assistance, as examples of progress during his time as the mayor of Vancouver.

However, he argued that achieving lasting results required a broader effort involving all levels of government and the people delivering services on the ground.

“It takes the coordination of all levels of government. It takes the support of all the people working on the street,” he said.

He also emphasized the involvement of Indigenous governments, noting the significant challenges homelessness poses for Indigenous people across Canada.

“We all have to do this together. We all have to be jointly focused on achieving this goal and implementing these changes and connecting the dots between the help, the housing and the health. Those things have to be integrated, and we have to deliver them together at pace,” continued the minister.

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