May 24, 2011

 2011 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count

 Lower Mainland

 This count is a snap shot and represents the absolute minimum of people dealing with homelessness found during a 24 hour period.

A total of 2,623 people were found to be homeless on March 16, 2011 according to the preliminary results from the 2011 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count.

 Overall, there was a 1% decrease since the 2008 Count when the total number of people found

homeless was 2,660.

 Burnaby Count Stats

                                                        *final number for 2008

                                                        Preliminary report was 87

Why are our Burnaby numbers lower than in 2008?

The Progressive Housing Society Homeless Outreach Program is working

Since 2008 PHS has serviced 1,425 unique clients,  housing 205 people 89 of these people were housed  more than once in this time period.

People who are couch surfing or in temporary housing arrangements continue to be challenging to find

The count methodology works especially well with municipalities with shelters,  in that people are easier to find and enumerate in shelters than having enumerators attending camps and covering a large geographic region.

 Burnaby

Burnaby’s sheltered homeless was 9 in 2008 and 4 in 2011 (site of Extreme Weather Shelter opened)

This change by -5 people comes to -56% in Burnaby’s sheltered homeless.

In comparison, most other municipalities showed an increase in sheltered homeless ranging between 8% (North Shore), 91% (Vancouver) and 275% (Langley)

Total count

1% decrease in the total number enumerated

76% increase in sheltered homeless

This shows that shelters as the first step in the housing continuum have positively impacted these stats for the first time. It was noted that shelters are not warehousing, but the first step towards services, support and housing.

Burnaby can look to these successes as a way of showing that housing first is making a positive difference in municipalities all around us. 

Key messages

Burnaby’s count results show that the PHS Homeless Outreach Program is very effective and is providing crucial services to Burnaby’s citizens

The overall count results show that shelters as the first stage in the housing continuum is very effective.

Burnaby would benefit from a continuum of housing

Burnaby’s count numbers make provision of a housing continuum reasonable to target.

Affordable housing remains key to impacting the cycle of homelessness