Regional Homeless Count 2008

March 7, 2008

Over 600 trained volunteers will participate in the upcoming homeless count for Metro Vancouver. Conducted over a 24-hour period, the count will begin with the nighttime component on March 10, 2008 in order to complete the enumeration of all shelters, safe houses and transition houses then continue during the daytime of March 11th, 2008, to enumerate homeless both on the streets and at service locations throughout the region.The 2008 Homeless Count will provide a conservative estimate of the street and sheltered homeless regionally, sub-regionally and by municipality, give a demographic profile of this population, and identify trends in relation to previous counts. This information is valuable for service planning and policy development.

The Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness invests in regular homeless counts to obtain current information, identify changes and trends over time and help monitor the implementation of the Regional Homelessness Plan, Three Ways to Home; a plan to eliminate homelessness in Metro Vancouver.

Funding for this critical initiative is provided by the Government of Canada’s Homelessness Partnership Strategy, the Vancouver Foundation, and United Way of the Lower Mainland.

A press conference for the release of the initial results from the Metro Vancouver 2008 Count is set for 9am on April 8th at United Way of the Lower Mainland offices at 4543 Canada Way, Burnaby.

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For further information please contact:
Judy Robertson,
Corporate Relations
Metro Vancouver
604-432-6205