2020
The 2020 Homeless Count in Metro Vancouver was held on March 4, 2020. In November, the Metro Vancouver report was posted. The Indigenous report is available in the form of an Infographic.
The report continues to find that Indigenous Peoples are 13 times more likely to be homeless than anyone else in the total population of Metro Vancouver, and are 24 times more likely to be homeless and unsheltered. New information in 2020 is that 53% of the respondents who identified as Indigenous spent time in the foster care system. Despite new housing and homelessness investments, housing need continues to grow beyond the investments made.
2018
On July 26th, 2018, the Aboriginal Homelessness 2018 Count in Metro Vancouver was released, accompanied by an Infographic.
The report, which is based on the 2018 Aboriginal homeless count in Metro Vancouver, continues to find that First Nations people are overrepresented among the homeless population, accounting for 40% of the homeless in the region, despite making up 2.2 per cent of the population. This is up from 34% in 2017.
The report attributes the key causes of homelessness among Aboriginal people to social, systemic and historical factors. In addition to securing safe and affordable housing, it notes Aboriginal people face additional barriers such as poverty, racism, intergenerational trauma and migration from their home communities to urban centres. Metro Vancouver is one of the most unaffordable cities for housing in the world, adding to the systemic economic disadvantage facing Aboriginal Peoples.
The Aboriginal Homeless Steering Committee is calling for a number of recommendations to be implemented, including the creation of an independent BC Homelessness Ombudsman office to support the interests of homeless individuals that effectively have no voice in the current system as well as landlord educational campaigns.
2017
On April 10th, 2017, Metro Vancouver released a preliminary data report for the 2017 Homeless Count in the Metro Vancouver region.
On September 25, 2017, the Aboriginal Homelessness 2017 Count in Metro Vancouver was released.
The report, which is based on the 2017 homeless count in Metro, found that First Nations people were overrepresented among the homeless population, accounting for 34 per cent of the homeless in the region, despite making up 2.5 per cent of the population. See the full Vancouver Sun article here.
“These realities offer insight into why Aboriginal peoples are overrepresented among the homeless population and should be essential considerations in any path forward,” Wells said. “Intergenerational trauma, in particular, has emerged as a central theme in much of the research on Aboriginal homelessness.”