A day before he began a weeklong hunger strike calling for a national social housing program, Michael Byers, a political-science professor at the University of British Columbia, sent an e-mail to his supporters.

"Fasting for an entire week is a very uncomfortable experience," Byers, a former federal NDP candidate in Vancouver Centre, wrote in his January 4 message. "But it is unconscionable that there are 100s of thousands of homeless people in this country today."

One reader who commented on a Straight story on the hunger strike took issue with Byers’s approximation of Canada’s homeless population.

"Really? Doesn’t that seem a little high? I haven’t seen any reliable stats on the homeless count, but would be interested to hear where he’s getting that," Brent Wittmeier wrote on January 7 in response to an article by reporter Matthew Burrows.

Byers’s fast will end on Monday (January 12). It’s part of a hunger-strike relay kicked off on December 29 by Vancouver housing activist Am Johal, who hopes the protest will continue until the Winter Olympic Games open in 2010. Sarah Evans, manager of HIV/AIDS and harm reduction programs at Vancouver Coastal Health, will take on the third leg of the relay.

Looking for answer to Wittmeier’s question, the Straight called the Wellesley Institute in Toronto and spoke to Michael Shapcott, a leading housing-policy expert who’s the organization’s director of community engagement.

According to Shapcott, Byers isn’t exaggerating the size of the problem. Advocates began saying there are 300,000 homeless people in Canada about 10 years ago. That figure was extrapolated from a study of homelessness in Toronto.

The actual number of homeless people in the country is unknown, and any estimates we do have just represent the “tip of the iceberg”, Shapcott said. Although it’s easy to count those in homeless shelters, it’s difficult to find out how many “rough sleepers” are living on the streets and “couch surfers” are staying temporarily with friends and family, he explained.

Another problem, Shapcott noted, is that Statistics Canada misses a large number of people when it conducts a census.

“If we don’t know the scale of the problem, we don’t know how big the solution needs to be,” he said.

Housing groups are asking Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to invest $2.5 billion of the January 27 federal budget in affordable housing. That cash could create between 30,000 and 50,000 new homes, according to Shapcott.

“Unfortunately, some politicians do use the fact that we’re pretty fuzzy about the specifics—because we simply don’t have the numbers—as an excuse not to do anything,” he said. “That’s got to stop.”

Shapcott said he supports the hunger-strike relay begun in Vancouver and plans to take on a leg of the protest.

“I haven’t formally committed to it, but I certainly will do it,” he said.