Rural homelessness is often hidden, occurring in cars, campers, backcountry locations, overcrowded homes, or from couch to couch. Yet, the service providers who participate in service-based counts and point-in-time counts are seeing the same alarming trend: homelessness is increasing, and needs are becoming more complex. In Nova Scotia, these counts have been conducted for years in the Eastern Zone and in Halifax, with recent results revealing a 72 per cent increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Eastern Zone, and homelessness nearly doubling in the Halifax region.

The first count in the western region of Nova Scotia shows that the housing crisis is deep. Despite innovative and compassionate responses from frontline non-profit organizations, these efforts are being undermined by structural issues, such as insufficient affordable housing stock, inadequate income support, and limited access to health and social services.

The Count in Western Nova Scotia

In November 2024, our research team conducted a community support and service-based count across the western region of Nova Scotia. This count collected data from forty-seven organizations in the counties of Lunenburg, Queens, Shelburne, Yarmouth, Digby, Annapolis, and Kings and the West Hants part of Hants County. We found 672 individuals, including 506 adults experiencing homelessness and 166 children under the age of 16.

Homelessness for this count uses the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness definition, which captures four typologies: unsheltered, emergency sheltered, precariously housed, and at-risk of homelessness. As a service-based count, it only captures individuals experiencing homelessness who are connected to a community organization or service provider that participated in the study. Our count is therefore an underestimation of people experiencing homelessness in the region.You can read the full report here.

It’s not just a housing shortage
Two of the top housing barriers reported across the region were high rents (60%) and poor-quality housing (53.3%). In rural areas, where housing stock is older, sparse, and often not designed to withstand climate-related risks, these issues are magnified. More homes are needed, but this cannot be done without a plan that ensures a full continuum of housing options, from emergency shelters to deeply affordable rentals/homes, and built with sustainability in mind (See, for example, the report of the Housing for All Working Group, 2021).

The concept of the housing continuum emphasizes that no single type of housing fits all needs. Emergency shelters, transitional housing, co-operatives, and affordable rentals each serve a role. However, in many rural communities, there are entire sections of the continuum missing.

We need rapid public investment in non-market and social housing that is climate-resilient, community-rooted, and sustainably funded. We need to look to the innovative examples in communities across Canada to emulate what’s possible when public land, community-led design, sustainability and affordability intersect (see Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts for an interactive map of innovative examples). We need governments to follow the evidence that investment in non-market housing, and in particular social housing, is the most effective way to promote and sustain the economic well-being of renters (Leloup & Leviten-Reid, 2025).

Affordability must be defined by income, not market rent
For the homeless people who were surveyed, income assistance (41.2%) was the most frequently reported income source. This is not surprising given that provincial social assistance rates fall well below Canada’s Official Poverty Line (Laidley & Oliveira, 2024).

Government programs that use definitions of affordability that peg rent at 80% of median market rates are insufficient and misleading (example: Secondary and Backyard Suite Incentive Program). Income-based affordability means shelter costs should be less than 30% of a household’s (pre-tax) income, including utilities and other shelter costs (Statistics Canada, 2022). All levels of government should adopt this definition and ensure there is enough income support and affordable housing for everyone, regardless of income (Saulnier & Williams, 2024).

At the same time, governments must also grapple with the structural issue of housing financialization. A shift toward viewing housing as a human right, supported by public investment in non-market housing, is necessary to ensure stability and equity in access to housing (Saulnier & Leviten-Reid, 2022).

Support services need to be part of the picture
Rural homelessness is compounded by the difficulty of accessing supports. Nearly a third of individuals in the study must leave their communities to access health or social services. Transportation barriers, along with gaps in mental health care, harm reduction services, and housing supports, mean that people are forced to navigate complex systems with little help.

Many community organizations are stretched beyond capacity, facing high staff turnover and burnout due to precarious funding. Some were unable to participate in the November count simply because they did not have the staff time.

The sector needs core, multi-year funding for rural service providers and shelters so they can plan, recruit, and retain staff, and respond to community needs with continuity and care.

The need for prevention
The report also emphasizes how homelessness is connected to other vulnerabilities. For example, family conflict (19.4%), intimate partner violence (15.2%), and mental health (5.8%) were among the top reasons people reported losing their homes. Over 50 individuals (10.6%) were identified as being in or returning to abusive relationships. Another finding was the lack of basic amenities in current housing, with those surveyed mentioning adequate and affordable heating as the most missing.

These findings underline the need for trauma-informed supports, gender-based intersectional analysis in housing policy, and prevention-focused strategies. Shelters are vital, but they do not address intimate partner violence, poverty, or housing instability. Prevention practices mean stabilizing incomes, investing in mental health and addiction services, and ensuring people have safe places to go before a crisis.

Place-based recommendations
As part of this study, our research team met with five housing coalitions across the western region to share local data and engage in dialogue. While each community faces unique challenges, several common themes emerged in their recommendations, which also complement the urgent actions put forth by the Eastern Zone’s 2024 Service-based Homelessness Count. Governments must:

  • Decentralize services to provide more localized support to rural communities.
  • Address transportation barriers, which significantly impact access to housing, services and home communities.
  • Expand emergency shelter options in some communities and supported housing and/or housing support workers in others.
  •  Increase the availability of affordable housing, defined as shelter costs that cost less than 30% of household income, and enhance financial supports, from rent supplements to basic income.
  • Improve access to harm reduction, addiction and mental health services.
  • Prioritize prevention-based approaches.
  • Provide stable, core funding for housing programs and shelters to reduce burnout and improve staff retention.
  • Enact right-to-housing legislation.

A call for collective leadership
While homelessness is a complex, province-wide issue shaped by issues such as colonial land policy and underinvestment in public housing, solutions must be community-driven and tailored to local contexts. Ongoing collaboration, long-term investment, and legislative action are essential to move from crisis response to sustained, systemic change.

This count offers a snapshot of homelessness issues in rural and small-town communities in the western region of Nova Scotia, and underscores the urgency for collective leadership, guided by those most affected by housing insecurity, to generate the policy and practice shifts needed to end homelessness in the western region.

This Community Support and Service-based Count is grounded in a collaborative, community-based action research initiative. The report is meant to act as a catalyst for advocacy and action across all sectors and all levels of government. If you are a service provider in the western region of Nova Scotia and want to be part of this advocacy work or be involved in the next count in 2026, please contact: [email protected].