KELOWNA – The “snapshot” results of a survey has put a hard figure on the minimum number of homeless people in Kelowna.
The count done on the night of February 24th found 223 individuals who didn’t have a permanent roof over their heads.
“That’s a big number and obviously indicates there’s some gaps and we need more affordable housing and support services for people,” says Mia Burgess of the Central Okanagan Foundation which conducted the count.
Burgess says the results provide a better understanding of Kelowna’s homeless situation and may be used to help guide social policy decisions.
“It’s mostly a baseline for where we’re at and what we need to do going forward, where the gaps are in services and what needs to be done to address the issue.”
The homeless count was done the same night in 31 communities across the country.
Burgess hopes to repeat the exercise in 2018.
“Using the same methodology because we want to see in two years the changes, we want to measure that.”
The survey found 39% of respondents had been evicted for non-payment of rent or other reasons such as expired leases.
It also showed 70% of kelowna’s homeless are male and most are between the ages of 25 and 64
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