Advocates anticipate this year's Metro Vancouver Homeless Count will be higher than previous years'
Advocates are predicting this year's Metro Vancouver Homeless Count will be higher than previous years' due to lingering impacts from the pandemic, job losses and inflation.
Rachael Allen, a spokesperson for Union Gospel Mission, says based on what the organization is hearing anecdotally about food and housing insecurity, she’s predicting there will be more people experiencing homelessness once the results from the count are published.
Allen said UGM can’t keep up with demand for shelter space.
“All of last year in 2022, we were nearly at full capacity almost every single night and on average, we had to turn away about six people every single night because we didn’t have space for them,” she told CTV News.
Stephen D’Souza, the executive director of Homeless Services Association of B.C. said his group is also anticipating a larger number of unhoused people.
“Despite a lot of work being done by local governments, provincial governments and federal governments, it really hasn’t met the need in the community,” he said.
The association will be leading this year’s count, which is set to occur March 8. The last count was done in 2020, prior to the pandemic, and showed 3,634 people experiencing homelessness in Metro Vancouver, with Black and Indigenous people overrepresented relative to their share of the general population.
The Homeless Count provides a 24-hour snapshot of homelessness, and both Allen and D’Souza are aware it doesn’t provide an accurate picture of the crisis. The count often fails to take into account the region’s hidden homeless population, which can include youth, trans people, and women fleeing abuse.
“Oftentimes, they’re in situations where they’re maybe couch-surfing or sleeping in their car or in other hidden ways that make it difficult to connect with them,” Allen said.
In addition to recording how many people are experiencing homelessness, a survey is also conducted to record demographic information such as health and race-based data. Allen said 2020 was the first time the count recorded racial data.
D’Souza said the association is currently looking to recruit up to 1,200 volunteers to take part in the initiative. Once the count is completed, he said results will likely be published by late summer or early fall.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.