The Metro Vancouver homeless numbers are out and homelessness in the Aboriginal community is getting worse.
Of the 3,605 people currently living on the street, 746 are First Nations. In the last three years, Indigenous homelessness has increased by over 16 per cent.
“The crisis is worsening daily… we are very concerned that we are failing to protect our most vulnerable citizens,” said the Chair of Metro Vancouver Housing Committee, Mike Clay.
Metro Vancouver’s affordability crisis is cited as one of the major causes of homelessness, with half of those surveyed saying they’ve lived here for 10 years or more before they ended up on the streets or in shelters.
The largest populations of homeless individuals are in Vancouver (2,138) and Surrey (605).
“How we go about supporting organizations to serve Indigenous homelessness is different than non-Indigenous homelessness, and the funding model aligns with that, but the actual amount of resources don’t align with that and so in that sense we are under resourced,” said Chairman of the Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee, David Wells.
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