The number of homeless people in the Tri-Cities has fallen by half since 2008, according a report released yesterday.
The March 16 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count found just 47 homeless people in the Tri-Cities, exactly half as many as the 94 homeless people counted in 2008. Of those 47 Tri-City homeless, 20 were sleeping in shelters - up from 18 in 2008 - and 27 were outside, down from the 76 sleeping rough in 2008.
The Tri-Cities Homelessness Task Group chair, Sandy Burpee, said that the one-day count in the Tri-Cities likely only accounts for half of the total homeless population, meaning there are currently close to 100 homeless people in the Tri-Cities. But he said the snapshot count is highly accurate in gauging the fluctuation in homeless numbers from year to year.
The task group, which conducts the count in partnership with Metro Vancouver, credited Tri-City outreach workers, church volunteers and the winter shelter mat program with both reducing the number of people sleeping outside and getting former shelter dwellers into permanent housing.
Burpee said that while homelessness numbers were slightly up in Maple Ridge and relatively static in New Westminster, across the board, homelessness was down.
"There's been some movement here and there but generally it's been a no-growth situation, which, after the increase from 2005 to 2008, that's good news," Burpee said.
Metro Vancouver started counting the region's homeless people in 2002 and has done a count every three years since.
The total number of homeless people in Metro Vancouver dropped by 1% from 2,660 in 2008 to 2,623 in 2011, while the number of homeless people sleeping outside dropped by more than half from 1,574 in 2008 to 731 in 2011.
Shelter use also increased dramatically this year, credited in large part to the opening of new shelters in Vancouver, with 1,086 people using shelters in 2008 compared to 1,892 using them this year.
Youth homelessness also appears to be on the decline in the Tri-Cities as the 2008 count found 18 homeless youth in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody and only eight this year.
tcoyne@tricitynews.com
