National

Spike in Vancouver's homeless count

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 05 Oct, 2023 01:34 PM

The latest count of homeless residents in Greater Vancouver finds the number of people without permanent shelter has surged 32 per cent since 2020.

The count by the Homelessness Services Association of B-C was done on March 7th and 8th -- and identified just under five thousand people in 11 communities, up from the roughly 36-hundred identified in the March 2020 count.

The association says in a news release that the increase is the largest between consecutive counts since the measurement began 18 years ago -- and many who were interviewed said the effects of the pandemic forced them onto the street.

The greatest percentage changes were in Delta, Richmond and the Tri-Cities, but the association says the biggest jump into total number of homeless residents was in Surrey and Vancouver, with 416 additional unsheltered residents in Surrey and 325 in Vancouver.

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