Volunteers will tour the streets of metro vancouver For the first count of people living on the streets since the start of the COVID pandemic.
Volunteers will spend 24 hours counting experiencers from the night of March 7 Homeless In hopes of gathering valuable information for the province as well as service providers and non-profit agencies.
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A nonprofit organization that specializes in providing services to rough-and-tumble residents says the count is crucial for the region.
“These aren’t just numbers — these are people,” said Nicole Mucci, a spokeswoman for the Union Gospel Mission.
“It’s a way for us to better understand how many people are actually facing life without housing.”
While the Point in Time Homeless Count has many uses, it provides a “common language” for all three government levels and non-profit organizations.
According to the City of Vancouver, more than 400 volunteers are expected to participate in the count.
City of Vancouver staff said, “Although the count does not give us a complete picture of the extent of homelessness, the count provides important information on the number and characteristics of the homeless population, and how the population has changed over time.”
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The last count in Metro Vancouver was done in March 2020. That effort found that more than 3,000 people were homeless on any given night in Metro Vancouver.
The Union Gospel Mission states that the count is usually an “undercount”, which is the baseline for understanding.
“The reality is that the population is two or three times the number of people counted because people have to identify themselves (through a survey),” Mucci said.
“We were full almost every night in 2022. On average we were turning away about six people a night (at a shelter in Vancouver).”
The mission said it expected the count to be higher than ever.
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