Metro Vancouver's homeless count campaign needs 600 volunteers
Credit to Author: Kevin Griffin| Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2020 22:38:11 +0000
When Jaraad Marani first volunteered for the homeless count, he didn’t really know all that much about homelessness.
At the time, he was studying at the University of B.C. in the School of Community and Regional Planning. He thought it would be a good way to give back to the community.
“I didn’t have a lot of experience with what homelessness is and who homeless folks are other than walking by folks on the street,” he said.
“Honestly, it was such an eye-opening, life-changing experience that I love doing it every year.”
Marani did his first homeless count in 2014 and his second in 2017. He’s looking forward to doing it again next month.
“The purpose is to eliminate homelessness, but it really allows volunteers to interact with homeless folks to realize they are people like you and I,” he said.
This year, the homeless count needs more volunteers like Marani in Metro Vancouver.
With the count scheduled for the night of Tuesday, March 3 and throughout the day on Wednesday, March 4, there are only 600 volunteers who have come forward — about half of the 1,200 needed, said Jill Atkey, CEO of the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Society which conducts the homeless count.
Volunteers don’t need any previous experience. Each volunteer attends a two-hour training session where they learn how to carry out the survey as well as basic safety and how to be a good researcher.
Homeless count volunteers at work in New Westminster during the 2017 survey.
Each volunteer then does a two- to three-hour shift either in a shelter or on the streets. Volunteers needed include 170 in Surrey, 100 in Vancouver and 80 in Burnaby.
“If you don’t have any experience or haven’t been involved in homeless count before, you get paired with someone who has experience,” she said.
“No one goes out alone.”
Volunteers can sign up at 2020 Homeless Count.
The homeless count is more than simply a head count. Each interview with a homeless person involves a demographic profile that includes questions about how long they have lived without a home, whether they have a physical or mental health condition, and if they have a pet.
The information gathered in the homeless count is critical, Atkey said, in making public policy on services for homeless people and housing.
Atkey said Marani’s transformational experience as a volunteer isn’t unusual.
“What they found it that it really helped give them a one-on-one understanding of why somebody was experiencing homelessness,” she said.
“On the whole, people experiencing homelessness are really happy to share their individual stories because they want to affect change as much as the rest of us and make sure everyone has access to safe and affordable housing.”
The first homeless count in 2002 recorded 1,100 living in shelters and on the street; the last one in 2017 saw the number jump to 3,605.
Asked what the count would be this year, Atkey said:
“It’s really tough to predict. I’m hopeful that we’ll have seen that all of the temporary modular housing will have helped to stabilize the numbers. Those numbers have led a fairly tragic trajectory upwards.”
Atkey was referring to the 2,200 units of temporary modular housing being built or already finished in 22 communities around the province, including 608 in Vancouver.
The results of the 2020 homeless count will be available this fall.
2002 1,100
2005 2,000
2008 2,600
2011 2,623
2014 2,770
2017 3,605
2020 ?
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