Chuck Lazenby has been working with the city's homeless population for years. She believes things are getting worse.

"Visibility of poverty has certainly increased over the past two years. That is the significant change that we've seen on our streets," said Lazenby, who is the executive director of Unity Project, a shelter in Old East Village.

Lazenby said there are many reasons things have gotten so bad, but at the core she blames lack of affordable housing.

"We haven't had a significant push for affordable housing in our communities by prior governments. This isn't something that was just born overnight. We haven't set the stage to be able to get people into homes."

Lazenby is disappointed the Ford government rolled back increases to social assistance rates and minimum wage, and cut the basic income pilot program. All things, Lazenby argues, will be instrumental in getting people out of the grips of poverty.

Chuck Lazenby has been with London's Unity Project since it began in 2001. (Rebecca Zandbergen/CBC News)

"It's a complicated issue, because it's a systemic issue that has been building for years. So now when we're faced in a community where rents are increased, our vacancy rates have decreased, the jobs market is not very good, this is what we have as a consequence," she said.

What about London's drug problem?

Lazenby admitted London is also struggling with a drug problem, but suggested most users are firstly victims of trauma.

"If we try to simplify it, which I know people want to do to say, 'drugs are the issue,' we're going to continue to put band aids in place that don't actually resolve things."

Lazenby said there are many agencies in London who have worked hard over the years to offer supports to drug users, and they're quite capable of doing that.

"But if we don't have a foundation for individuals which would be a home for us to support them in, then we're going to have a difficult time doing our job," said Lazenby.

Lazenby said she sees clients every day who need somewhere to live.

"That's where we're hitting walls."

People are staying at the Unity Project shelter for longer periods of time, said Lazenby. "So we're serving less individuals in a year but they're having to stay longer. This is our greatest challenge now. We know for most of the people we see, that's the only gap."

Poverty crisis

Lazenby is hopeful the city will declare a poverty crisis in London.

"I would love that to happen. I would have seen it happen years ago. It's always been a difficult thing. Now that it's more visible, that pressure is on and I think maybe that is exactly the kind of thing that needs to happen," said Lazenby.

"And it certainly sounds like if there was ever a city council was going to make some moves, that we certainly have some political will to do something at this time."