Metro Vancouver’s unhoused population has grown to a historic level, according to the region’s latest homeless count.
The 2024 point-in-time homeless count, which was conducted over a 24-hour period in March, found 5,232 people experiencing homelessness across 16 Metro Vancouver municipalities.
It’s an increase of nine per cent since the last count in 2023 identified 4,821 people experiencing homelessness.
More troubling, the count found 1,893 people who were experiencing unsheltered homelessness, meaning they are living outdoors, without protection from the elements — a 30 per cent increase from 2023.
Those increases were even more pronounced in some Metro Vancouver communities. Delta saw the number of unsheltered people surge by 115 per cent, while the numbers were up by more than 60 per cent in the North Shore, Ridge Meadows and White Rock.
The count also highlighted how Indigenous people remain overrepresented among the unsheltered homeless population. More than half, 54 per cent, of Indigenous people experiencing homelessness were living unsheltered, compared to 42 per cent of non-Indigenous respondents.
“They’re residential school survivors often, disconnected from their community, and there isn’t a community for them to go back to and they’re left exposed to the system on the streets,” said David Wells, chair of the Metro Vancouver Indigenous Homelessness Steering Committee.
“Having access to housing and education are the key things; there’s been a lot of attention on that, but it hasn’t translated yet.”
The data released on Wednesday are from a preliminary report, with the full report expected to be released in September.
Since 2005, when regional homelessness counts began in Metro Vancouver, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the region has increased by 141 per cent.