The CHR is an important tool for local planning and resource allocation in Medicine Hat. The Report tracks local trends and outcomes, while also identifying the unique needs of vulnerable populations. This information helps strengthen coordinated access and improve the overall homeless-serving system of care, ensuring supports are better aligned with community needs.

The Community Homelessness Report summarizes the challenges faced, the outcomes achieved, and the steps being taken to strengthen Medicine Hat’s system of care during 2024-2025. 

Launched in 2019, Reaching Home is a community-based program designed to prevent and reduce homelessness across Canada. It supports the goals of Solving the Housing Crisis: Canada’s Housing Plan and the National Housing Strategy by providing funding and guidance to urban, Indigenous, territorial, rural, and remote communities to address local homelessness needs. Between 2019 and 2028, Reaching Home is investing $5 billion to tackle homelessness across the country. This investment strengthens the efforts of organizations delivering critical services and ensures communities have the resources to prevent and reduce homelessness.

]]> https://mhchs.ca/call-for-volunteers-2025-point-in-time-count/ Tue, 09 Sep 2025 22:30:44 +0000 https://mhchs.ca/?p=3534 […]]]> Point-In-Time Count on Homelessness – October 22, 2025

Medicine Hat Community Housing Society is again preparing to capture the current experience of homelessness in our community through its Point-In-Time (PiT) Count. This year’s Count is set for Wednesday, October 22.

The PiT Homeless Street Count and Survey is an annual initiative that provides an important snapshot of homelessness in our community by identifying individuals who are sleeping rough, accessing emergency shelters, in systems, and those in transitional housing during a 24-hour period. The information gathered helps us better understand the experiences and needs of people facing homelessness in Medicine Hat. By capturing this data, we can inform more effective programs, services, and strategies to support those most vulnerable.

Volunteers are an integral part of the PiT Count. Volunteers will be given specific routes throughout the city where homeless persons congregate and access services. Volunteers will talk with each individual they encounter and invite them to participate in a short survey.

To register as a volunteer, please contact Kerri Sandford at ksandford@mhchs.ca

Every person counts and every story matters.

Overview
The Point-in-Time (PiT) Count uses a consistent methodology and standardized survey questions to track local, provincial, and national trends in homelessness. Combined with other data, PiT Count findings help deepen our understanding of the state of homelessness locally and across the country. This data supports effective planning, program development, and service delivery to prevent and end homelessness and improve the coordinated system of care that serves vulnerable community members.

Multiple data sources contribute to the PiT Count, including:

1. Enumeration/Street Count
2. A Voluntary Survey
3. Administrative/Systems Data (shelters, transitional housing, Justice and Health)

In the fall of 2024 and in the spring of 2025, 74 communities across the country participated in Everyone Counts, the nationally coordinated Point-In-Time (PiT) Count of homelessness. Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC) prepared and released the Everyone Counts 2024 – Highlights Report Part 1 – Enumeration of Homelessness. The report shows that nearly 60,000 people across the country were identified as experiencing homelessness.

To read the full Report, visit: https://housing-infrastructure.canada.ca/…/pit-counts…

Medicine Hat 2024 Point-In-Time Count Snapshot:

• 104 community members were experiencing homelessness on October 10, 2024
•  35 were experiencing unsheltered homelessness
•  42 were sheltered (emergency shelters, transitional housing)
•  27 were counted in Systems (Health & Justice)

Medicine Hat 2022 Point-In-Time Count Snapshot:

• 120 community members were experiencing homelessness on September 26, 2022
• 31 were experiencing unsheltered homelessness
• 80 were sheltered (emergency shelters, transitional housing)
• 9 were counted in Systems (Health & Justice)

His message . . .
“If you work in the homelessness sector—or ever have—you already know: this work is hard, heavy, and often heartbreaking. In this video, I speak directly to those on the frontlines. The shelter staff, outreach workers, housing navigators, case managers, system planners, and everyone in between. The ones who carry the grief, the frustration, and the invisible weight of systems that are stretched thin and too often fail the people we serve. This is a message of solidarity. A reminder that you’re not weak, you’re not failing, and you’re not alone. You’re doing sacred work in a scarred world.
Yes, the challenges are immense, such as underfunding, bureaucracy, public misconceptions, and the ever-growing storm of need.
But we know what works. The answer is housing. Real homes. With support. With services. With dignity.
If you’re feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, or even on the brink of burnout, this is your moment to breathe, reconnect, and remember why the work matters.
Let this be your reminder: keep going. Rest if you need to. But don’t give up.
I see you. I stand with you. And I believe in you.”

Medicine Hat’s systems planning response to the homeless experience is one that has generated attention beyond its borders. The system of care developed is grounded in real-time data, and the lived experience perspective coupled with academic and evidence-based decisions has been pivotal to Medicine Hat’s ability to effectively address diverse types of housing instability and experiences of homelessness in the community.

The 2024-2025 Service Delivery Plan lays the framework for the homeless-serving system of care in Medicine Hat.

2024-25 SDP Medicine Hat Community Housing Society

Bring your questions, frustrations, complaints, concerns and suggestions to the table and lets talk!

“On the Record” will be held from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. in the Medicine Hat Public Library Theatre Room. 
To ensure adequate space, please email an RSVP to jnelson@mhchs.ca or by phoning 403.528.5189.

• Housing Link – Outreach Department of MHCHS 
  #104, 516 3rd Street SE (403-527-4507)
• Mustard Seed Shelter
  737 8th Street SE (825-222-4636)
• Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter Society (403-529-1091)
• Roots Youth Shelter
  250 2nd Street SE (403-866-7482)