Lower Mainland’s first homeless count in 3 years underway

For the first time in three years, Metro Vancouver’s homeless count is underway.

Beginning Tuesday night, during a 24-hour period, over 1,000 volunteers are fanning out across the region to identify how many folks are experiencing homelessness.

The Homeless Services Association of BC (HSABC) says 11 municipalities across the Lower Mainland are taking part in this year’s count and explains its volunteers try to be as accurate as possible in order to understand who is living without safe, affordable, appropriate housing, and why they are in that situation.

As the last count was completed a week before the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Nicole Mucci, Union Gospel Mission’s communications advisor, expects to see the number of unhoused people to have increased.

“Simply because, not only did we see a lot of marginalization and added barriers as a result of the pandemic and loss of jobs, but over the last year, we’ve also seen inflation increase,” she explained to CityNews.

Mucci says there are several gaps in the count, with unhoused women, children, and gender-diverse people underrepresented.

“There’s so much stigma and there’s so much fear around self-identifying as experiencing homelessness. That could lead to continued negative repercussions, as opposed to additional services,” she said.

The “hidden homeless,” such as couch surfers or those living in vehicles, are likely under-represented, but the HSABC says the unconventionally unhoused who have not been counted can call 211 to complete a short, anonymous survey.

The last count found that 3,634 people were at that time experiencing homelessness. That count was completed less than a week before the pandemic was declared.

–With files from Maria Vinca and The Canadian Press