Canada
Canadian Street Soccer Association
Canadian Street Soccer Association (CSSA) was founded in 2024. CSSA is dedicated to using sports as a tool for positive change. We engage, motivate, and reintegrate individuals facing challenges such as homelessness, refugee status, addiction, mental health issues, and social exclusion. Our mission addresses housing, health, and employment issues through collaborative and partnerships.
We run weekly Soccer Programs for men and women to promote physical activity and social interaction.
Organize local, national, regional, and national competitions to foster community spirit and broader engagement.
Partner with social agencies to offer training and rehabilitation sessions aimed at holistic personal development
PARTICIPANTS
Individuals experiencing homelessness, marginalised and at-risk individuals, refugees, individuals with mental health challenges and people in rehabilitation programmes.
LOCATIONS
Currently running in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec. Hoping to expand to run to all Canadian provinces by 2025.
Country
Statistics
18 out of 189 in Human Development Index rankings (UNDP 2024)
Average salary per person C$53,930 (World Bank, 2024)
10.5% of the 38.7 million population live below the poverty line (World Population Review 2024)
Canada is the third largest country by land mass in the world and has a population of 38.7 million. It is sparsely populated in rural areas, with 81% of the population living in urban centres such as Toronto (6.3 million), Montreal (4.3 million) and Vancouver (2.6 million). (CIA World Factbook, 2024)
In April 2019, the Canadian Government launched ‘Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy’ which works alongside the country’s first ever National Housing Strategy and aims to reduce chronic homelessness nationally by 50% by financial year 2027 – 2028.
The national housing strategy aims to remove 530,000 families from housing need and invest in building up to 160,000 new homes over a ten-year period (2017-2027) (Government of Canada, 2024).
However, campaigners say that this will not meet the need as 1.5 million households are currently living in unaffordable, overcrowded and poor-quality housing. 235,000 people experience homelessness each year while a third of people nationwide are unable to afford their rent. (Housing Rights Canada, 2023).
People who are street homeless in Canada are also met with regular sub-zero temperatures in the winter, making tent encampments incredibly dangerous. (Ottawa Citizen, 2024)
In 2023 Toronto declared homelessness was in a state of emergency. In September 2023 a reported 278 people a day were turned away from shelters due to a shortage of space. The demographic of people using shelters is also changing, the city estimates 40% of shelter residents are asylum seekers, but both new and life-long residents in the city are facing homelessness. (Toronto Star, 2023).
The Canadian Government conducts a point-in-time (PIT) count to collect a one-day snapshot of the state of homelessness in the country. In the latest series of data collections between 2020-2022 they found that over 40,000 people were listed as experiencing homelessness across 74 communities and regions.
This was a 20% increase from the previous study in 2018. Counts that were done towards the end of the global pandemic showed the more drastic rise in figures, with increases of 125% in unsheltered locations and 57% in shelters.
The point in time study found that 44% of respondents experienced homelessness for the first time before the age of 25. (Government of Canada, 2022)
STORIES from the region
