Metro Vancouver city sees surprising jump in homeless population
The number of people experiencing homelessness in Metro Vancouver continues to climb, and one surprising city topped the list of the biggest percentage increase in unhoused individuals.
Lu’ma Native Housing Society released its final report of the 2025 Point-in-Time Homeless Count in Greater Vancouver.
The findings paint a challenging picture for the region, with the total number of individuals experiencing homelessness increasing by nine per cent from 2023 to 2025.
However, when looking back to when the regional point-in-time homeless counts began in 2005, that number has increased by a whopping 141 per cent.
Jennifer Jessica Peck/Shutterstock
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“There were 5,232 individuals found to be experiencing homelessness across the region, an increase from 4,821 in 2023,” wrote report authors James Caspersen, Zharkyn Baiazova and Stephen D’Souza of Homelessness Services Association of BC.
“The increase in homelessness measured in this report is predominantly by people who are now without a home in their own communities.”
Changes in the number of individuals experiencing homelessness by sub-region, and the city with the biggest percentage jump since 2023 was Delta. The number of homeless people in the city increased by 70 per cent.
Also seeing a significant percentage increase was White Rock’s homeless population, up 53 per cent from 2023, and Ridge Meadows, which was up 36 per cent.
2025 Point-in-Time Homeless Count in Greater Vancouver
The Metro Vancouver sub-regions with the largest number of individuals experiencing homelessness remain Vancouver and Surrey, with 2,715 and 1,078, respectively. The two cities have topped the list in each report since 2005.
The total number of homeless in Greater Vancouver topped 5,000 for the first time in the count’s history.
Its authors also pointed out that the Point in Time methodology is generally considered to produce an undercount due to several limitations, ranging from community geography, weather impacts, and hidden homelessness.
Several other key findings from the 2025 Homeless Count in Greater Vancouver include that individuals who identify as Indigenous and those who do not identify as straight continue to be overrepresented in homelessness.
Over 40 per cent of respondents shared that their most recent experience of homelessness was caused by an eviction, and mental health continues to be a significant challenge for homeless people.
And nearly half of the seniors who participated in the survey revealed that they had their first experience of homelessness in their senior years.
BC Non Profit Housing Association
Ginna Berg, CEO of the Fraser River Indigenous Society, and Lorraine Copas, chair of the Greater Metro Vancouver Community Advisory Board, were among those who released the final 2025 Point-in-Time Homeless Count in Greater Vancouver report at a press conference earlier this week.
They, along with the report’s authors, are urging all levels of government to do more to address the homelessness issue.
In 2024, a student union president at one of Metro Vancouver’s largest universities told Daily Hive that housing and food insecurities are pushing students into homelessness, with some overnighting in campus buildings because they can’t pay rent.
Peter Waldkirch, a director with Abundant Housing Vancouver, also told Daily Hive that the solution to homelessness is more supportive housing, not less.
“Supportive housing is the last line of defence in keeping people off the streets, and the first step in helping them get off them.”
Hummingbird Place temporary modular supportive housing at 265 West 1st Ave., Vancouver. (Google Maps)
The Government of British Columbia also took new steps this summer to enhance the safety of residents and workers in supportive housing by empowering housing operators to act more swiftly against problematic tenants and guests, and by addressing growing concerns over second-hand exposure to fentanyl smoke.
B.C. Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Ravi Kahlon announced today that a new, time-limited working group will be established to give housing operators greater authority to respond to urgent safety issues.
The group will also explore the possibility of removing supportive housing from the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) to allow for quicker interventions against “problematic and dangerous individuals” involved in criminal activities, such as drug trafficking and weapons offences, that threaten the safety of vulnerable residents and staff. These individuals also take advantage of other residents.