KENORA – September 27, 2026 – The Kenora District Services Board will spend four days in mid-October counting people who are homeless across the district, from Kenora and Red Lake to Pickle Lake, in a Point-in-Time survey that officials say is how they put a number on a crisis that does not show up evenly on any one street.
Kenora, Red Lake and Ear Falls will be counted on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Sioux Lookout and Ignace follow on Oct. 14. Sioux Narrows–Nestor Falls, Dryden and Machin are Oct. 15. Pickle Lake is Oct. 16. Teams from KDSB and partner agencies will ask people in shelters and outside them to complete a short survey in a 24-hour window. The point is a snapshot: how many, where they slept, and what else is true about them.
Last year’s Kenora count put about 171 people as homeless in the city — 127 with some form of shelter, 64 unsheltered. District-wide, the 2025 report found 344 people without a place to live in eight catchments, down from 500 the year before. Acting CEO Sarah Stevenson has said the drop does not mean the problem is solved. Not everyone takes the survey. Hidden homelessness — couches, overcrowding, people who never walk into a service office — does not land on a one-night clipboard.
The housing wait list is the number that does not shrink. KDSB’s own reports say the district list has risen about 295 per cent since 2011. That is years of demand stacked against a thin stock of rentals in towns where a mine, a mill or a hospital job still does not guarantee a door that locks.
October’s count will not build a unit. It will tell Queen’s Park and Ottawa, again, how many people in Kenora District are in the rough on a given night, and whether last year’s 131 unsheltered district-wide figure moved. Food-bank lines in Kenora have already been rising with grocery and rent costs. The PIT is the other ledger: who has no address at all.
About the Author
Discover more from RL News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
