Why there are two editions of our homelessness research
Page source for /v1-library/editions.html (old-estate fires dispatch Leg 2(c), 2026-08-12 —
consolidation-rider leg 2, operator word banked 2026-08-11: "the two report versions need to be
explained"). Public voice. Everything above the first --- is stripped at render.
Why there are two editions of our homelessness research
If you explore this site you will find homelessness covered twice, and the two tellings don't always carry identical numbers. That is deliberate, and this page explains it — because the honest answer to "which version do I trust?" is a better foundation than pretending there is only one version.
The frozen v1 edition (July 2026) — what you are reading in this section
The Toronto Homelessness Report and its companion products — the journalist guide, the Election Toolkit, the FOI templates, the ward tracker, the data files — were completed as a single, sealed research project in early July 2026. That project built its own verification machinery: a claim ledger of 770 claims of which 92% were individually verified against primary sources, a 608-row source registry, a corrections log, and a replication protocol, all published here alongside the products themselves. We publish it as a frozen edition: its figures are its own, as of July 2026, and we do not silently update them. Where our newer research has since corrected or superseded a figure, the page carries a dated margin note pointing at the living page — the note is added, the original is never quietly rewritten. A research product you can cite needs to stay the thing you cited.
The living library — the flagship suite and backgrounders
Our current homelessness research lives in the research library: a flagship account grounded in the City's own 106-page service inventory, and a set of backgrounders that are corrected in place, in public, with dated in-body correction notes whenever a figure fails a later check. The living pages are broader, newer, and under continuous verification — when the two editions disagree, the living page is our current best understanding, and the frozen page will tell you where to find it.
Why keep the frozen edition at all?
Three reasons. First, it is a complete, citable artifact — journalists and researchers who quoted it in July 2026 can still check exactly what it said. Second, its product line is practical in a way a research library isn't: templates you can file, a toolkit keyed to the October 26, 2026 municipal election, fact sheets built to hand across a table. Third, its full claim ledger and source registry are open data here — the working of the machine, not just its outputs, and a record of how our verification practice was built.
The one-line rule
Frozen edition: cite it as "July 2026." Living library: cite it as today. Where they disagree, follow the margin note.