Latest count finds record number of people experiencing homelessness in Metro Vancouver
The 2024 point-in-time homeless count, which was conducted over a 24-hour period in March, found 5,232 people experiencing homelessness across 16 Metro Vancouver municipalities.
It's an increase of nine per cent since the last count in 2023 identified 4,821 people experiencing homelessness.
More troubling, the count found 1,893 people who were experiencing unsheltered homelessness, meaning they are living outdoors, without protection from the elements — a 30 per cent increase from 2023.
4:41
2025 homeless count set to begin in Metro Vancouver
Those increases were even more pronounced in some Metro Vancouver communities. Delta saw the number of unsheltered people surge by 115 per cent, while the numbers were up by more than 60 per cent in the North Shore, Ridge Meadows and White Rock.
Story continues below advertisement
The count also highlighted how Indigenous people remain overrepresented among the unsheltered homeless population. More than half, 54 per cent, of Indigenous people experiencing homelessness were living unsheltered, compared to 42 per cent of non-Indigenous respondents.
Get daily National news
Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
'They're residential school survivors often, disconnected from their community, and there isn't a community for them to go back to and they're left exposed to the system on the streets,' said David Wells, chair of the Metro Vancouver Indigenous Homelessness Steering Committee.
'Having access to housing and education are the key things; there's been a lot of attention on that, but it hasn't translated yet.'
The data released on Wednesday are from a preliminary report, with the full report expected to be released in September.
Since 2005, when regional homelessness counts began in Metro Vancouver, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the region has increased by 141 per cent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
2 hours ago
- Global News
UN says 68 African migrants were killed when boat capsized off Yemen
At least 68 African migrants died and 74 others were missing after their boat capsized Sunday in the waters off Yemen, the U.N.'s migration agency said. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration in Yemen told The Associated Press that the boat, with 154 Ethiopian migrants, capsized off Yemen's province of Abyan. Twelve migrants survived the shipwreck, he said, adding that the bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore in the district of Khanfar and 14 others were found dead at a different location and taken to a hospital morgue.
Global News
a day ago
- Global News
Ceremony held for RCAF pilot killed in Cape Breton crash while training in 1944
According to his Royal Canadian Air Force service records, 21-year-old Pilot Officer Bill Bennet was a fine airman. Described as tall and wiry, his commanding officer noted in March 1944 that the Montreal man was also 'enthusiastic and intelligent.' And as the Second World War in Europe entered its final phase that summer, Bennet was made a staff pilot at the RCAF station in Summerside, P.E.I., where he started training to fly reconnaissance aircraft or bombers. On Aug. 6, 1944, Bennet was tasked with flying a twin-engine Avro Anson V training aircraft carrying two navigators and one radio operator. Their routine mission that Sunday was to fly east from Summerside to a point over the Gulf of St. Lawrence north of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia and then return. But something went wrong over the water. The aircraft was well south of where it should have been. And as it entered a thick bank of fog, Bennett began a descent that he hoped would bring the plane below the haze. Story continues below advertisement Instead of emerging above the vast gulf, the aircraft suddenly plowed through a stand of small trees. Its wings, tail and one engine were torn off as it slammed into the side of Jerome Mountain on the western edge of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Bennet was badly injured, having suffered a fractured skull. Incredibly, the other three men had only minor wounds. Given the steep, rough terrain, it wasn't until the next afternoon that a search party reached the remote crash site northeast of the Acadian village of Cheticamp, N.S. The searchers were told Bennet had died during the night. 2:26 RCAF celebrates 100 years in the sky The three survivors — 20-year-old navigator John Robert Ogilvie and 22-year-old navigator William John Astle, both of Edmonton, and 22-year-old communications officer Jack Roy Burke of Wallaceburg, Ont. — managed to hike down the mountain by late Monday. But it would take another day before Bennet's body could be recovered. Story continues below advertisement Jeff Noakes, Second World War historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, said an RCAF inquiry later found the plane's compass wasn't working properly. As well, he said investigators determined the navigators and the pilot weren't communicating as well as they should have been. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'The RCAF ultimately concluded that they weren't 100 per cent sure why there was an error in the navigation,' Noakes said in an interview. On Saturday, more than 80 years after the crash, a non-profit group based in Cheticamp — Les Amis du Plein Air — held a public ceremony to unveil two commemorative panels at a campsite in the shadow of the mountain. Among those in the crowd of about 50 people was one of Bennet's nephews, 63-year-old Bill Bennet of Ottawa, who was named after his late uncle. He said it was important for him and his two children, Liam and Nora, to travel to Cape Breton to be part of the unveiling. 'My son is 21,' Bill Bennet said, his voice cracking with emotion as he recalled his uncle was the same age when he died. 'I want to make them aware of our family's connection to the war and what that means. It's also a chance to connect with the people of Cheticamp … about the efforts (their ancestors) made to rescue these men in this very rugged terrain …. I think of the sacrifice of my uncle, but there are so many more people involved in this whole story.' Story continues below advertisement 2:52 Remembering the Canadian general who helped secure Dutch freedom during WWII Bill Bennet's 65-year-old brother Doug, who travelled from Toronto with his wife Nancy and their children Nathan and Eliza, said his uncle's tragic story illustrates the sacrifices made by those who took part in the British Commonwealth Air Training Program, often described as among Canada's most important contributions to the war effort. By the end of the war, the program had graduated more than 131,000 pilots, observers, flight engineers and other aircrew for the air forces of Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. More than half joined the RCAF. It was often dangerous work. In all, 856 trainees were killed, though some sources suggest the number is much higher. 'It was a huge cost,' Doug Bennet said before the ceremony began. 'And they were almost all in their late teens and early 20s.' Story continues below advertisement Erin Gregory, curator at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, said most Canadians are more familiar with the sacrifices made overseas during the Second World War. 'It's important to mark this moment of service and sacrifice at home, which is at least as important as what happened overseas,' Gregory said. 'As part of the war effort, it was extremely important and it was dangerous.'
Global News
2 days ago
- Global News
1 dead, 2 injured after small plane crashes near Ottawa airport
Ottawa paramedics say a man has died after the small plane he was piloting crashed into trees near the city's airport on Thursday. Emergency crews responded to a wooded area near Riverside Drive and Hunt Club Road shortly before 6 p.m. after receiving reports of the small plane crash. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Superintendent Marc-Antoine Deschamps said first responders worked together to extricate the three occupants from the plane. Deschamps said the pilot, an adult male, was pronounced dead at the scene. A man and woman were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it was investigating and that the plane was a privately registered Grumman AA-5A. The Ottawa International Airport Authority said the airport fire department responded to the crash site, working with city firefighters, but airport operations were not affected.
