Metro Vancouver’s homeless count on the rise

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Metro Vancouver is on the up, according to new statistics.

The number of people across Metro Vancouver with no place to call home continues to grow.

The latest homeless count, conducted in March, shows 5,232 people were unhoused across the region – a nine per cent increase from the last count in 2023.

“When we look at some of the patterns and trends underneath the data, it starts to paint that picture of our systems failing,” said Lorraine Copas, chair of the Greater Metro Vancouver Community Advisory Board.

“Our housing system is no longer providing the housing that meets the needs of the people who live in our communities.”

The report shows Indigenous people continue to be over-represented.

Despite making up just over two per cent of the region’s overall population, 34 per cent of homeless people identify as First Nations, Inuit or Metis.

“Indigenous people become unhoused at a younger age, stay unhoused for longer and are more likely to be unsheltered than non-Indigenous people,” said Ginna Berg, of the Indigenous Homelessness Steering Committee for Greater Vancouver for Reaching Home. “This can’t continue. This is something we cannot accept.”

According to the report, 22 per cent of people experiencing homelessness are seniors, with many of them reporting they have no place to call home for the first time in their lives.

“When we see that seniors are experiencing homelessness for the very first time in their lives, when they’re 75 years old or 80 years old, it’s the very real human face of a sustained affordability crisis in a housing crisis that’s been ongoing,” said Union Gospel Mission’s Nicole Mucci.

The report’s authors are calling on all levels of government to do more to tackle the problem.

“We need to actually put more investment in, pull harder together, and, at the end of the day, really make housing a human right – and think about that person who doesn’t have that housing now,” said Copas.

While many homeless people access shelters or couch-surf with family and friends, the count identified close to 1900 people in the region who are unsheltered and sleep outdoors most of the time.