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Metro Vancouver homeless count underway

An emergency weather response means that more people are in shelters
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Volunteers are out counting the homeless in Metro Vancouver.

More than 1,200 volunteers are tallying up numbers of homeless people in Metro Vancouver shelters after a count Tuesday night that happens every three years.

The final data won’t be available until April, but Peer-Daniel Krause, the policy manager of the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association, says there have been no surprises so far.

“I got feedback from three shelters and they were all very happy,” he said.

The 2014 count captured 2,777 homeless people living in Metro Vancouver, up four per cent from 2008. The two most common reasons were high rent and low income.

An emergency weather response was called last night which means that extra beds were opened up.

“This is the first time in the history of the homeless count that this has happened,” he said. “One of the challenges for us will be in the data analysis and to which degree we’re able to actually separate the shelter beds from the emergency weather response rate.”

The count for the number of homeless people on the street is set for Wednesday night.

 

@katslepian

katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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