VANCOUVER HOMELESSNESS COUNT

Total:

• 2005: 1,364 (Sheltered 773, Unsheltered 59)

• 2010: 1,715 (Sheltered 1,294, Unsheltered 421)

• 2015: 1,746 (Sheltered 1,258, Unsheltered 488)

• 2019: 2,223 (Sheltered 1,609, Unsheltered 614)

Demographics:

• 1% non-binary, 23% female, 76% male

• 33% self-report mental illness

• 39% of homeless are Indigenous (though only 2.2% of Vancouver’s population)

• 53% of homeless women are Indigenous

• 68% suffer from addiction (33% opioids, 29% meth, 14% cocaine)

• 86% between age 25 and 64

Place of origin:

• 16% (156 people) were from Metro Vancouver

• 31% (299 people) were from elsewhere in BC

• 44% (435 people) were from another part of Canada (mostly Alberta and Ontario)

• 9% (89 people) were from outside Canada

Unsheltered living situation:

• 5% in a vehicle

• 11% tent or makeshift structure

• 17% friend’s house

• 61% outside

Reason for not staying in a shelter:

• 1% stayed instead in hospital/detox/jail/transition house

• 3% feared pests

• 8% turned away

• 9% able to stay with friend

• 9% don't find shelters safe

• 14% just don’t like them

• 14% did not know why

• 46% other (unable to keep pets with them in shelter, prefer to be alone, concerns about shelter staff…)

Income sources:

• 1% none

• 1% Employment Insurance

• 4% employed full-time

• 7% Canadian Pension Plan

• 7% panhandling

• 10% bottle collecting

• 11% employed part-time

• 31% disability

• 42% income assistance

Toronto, with 2.9 million people, has a homeless population of 8,700 (or 0.3% of the city’s population). Winnipeg, with a population of 705,000, has 1,500 homeless (0.2%). Vancouver has 675,000 people and 2,200 homeless (also 0.3%, of whom roughly one in four are from Ontario.)

Under the National Housing Strategy and its National Housing Co-investment Fund, the federal government pledged $1.47 billion for low-cost housing projects to respond to homelessness. Of that sum, $1.4 billion (95.2%) has gone to Toronto, largely to repair and revitalize 60,000 pre-existing units. Winnipeg received $25.6 million (1.4% of the total) from the same federal plan for 110 new housing units. $7.4 million (just 0.5% of the total) was provided to Vancouver for two projects of a total 66 new units.