This is damaging to an individual's physical and emotional health over the long term. It also increases the pressure on the emergency shelter system. The City's two street patrol services report that more people are living on the street. While most are single men over 30, patrols are seeing more couples, especially among young people. This likely reflects the lack of emergency shelter space for couples.
Street patrols continue to see a disproportionate number of Aboriginal people on the street.
Street patrols also report more people with mental illness and addictions. This may point to a lack of community-based mental health services to help people find and keep their housing. This is down from 135,000 people in 1998 due in part to improvements in the economy. However, it should be noted that these numbers are still at an historic high. They remain at levels much higher than before the recession in the early part of the 1990s.