Homelessness is something that is still a growing problem today in many parts of the world, Vancouver included. A large part of why this is, is because housing prices are to high for people to afford, leaving people on the street. So what if the housing prices were lower, would that lower the percent of homelessness in Vancouver?
That leads to my second inquiry question, what role does affordable housing supply play in preventing people from falling into homelessness in Vancouver?
The first thing I am going to talk about is statics of homelessness in Vancouver. In March of 2025 there was a homelessness count, there were 5,232 individuals who identified as a homeless person (1). There were 1,893 people who where in a shelter and there were 3,339 who were unsheltered (1). This number is high as in 2023 there were 4,821 people who identified as homeless (2). In total there were 1,461 who were unsheltered and 3,360 who were in a shelter (2). The difference in house pricing from 2023 to now is only about 0.8% (this is not including all the fluctuation between the 2 years just the difference in average from then and now) (6). This could have had an impact on the change, but I believe both the numbers are to close to tell. In 2005 there were 2,174 people in Vancouver who identified as homeless, this is significantly lower then recent years (1). In total there were 1,047 who were unsheltered and 1,127 who were in a shelter (2).
This means there was a 122% raise in homelessness between the years 2005 and 2023 in BC (4). There was also a 222% average housing raise from the years 2005 to 2023 in BC (6). This translates into a annual growth of 5.8%. that is a crazy amount in only 17 years. (6) Now comparing these numbers here we can clearly see the the rise in housing did have an impact on homelessness in BC. This is scary as right now the average home in Vancouver is around $1,265,670 this is already a increase of 1.0% monthly from September 2025.(6) Or you can think of it as 1.2% every years and this number is only going to continue to go up (6). Canada is trying to help solve this problem as they have multiple plans and a total of 115+ billion dollars to use in ten years to help prevent homelessness (7).
I am now going to talk about a plan to help create affordable housing. This is the ten year housing targets and it is a plan to build 83,000 new homes across Vancouver in the next 10 years (5). There is going to be a lot of units that are designed for people that need extra support when it comes to housing. There is going to be 1,500 units (which is around 2%) that are made for supportive housing (5). There is going to be 8,500 units (which is around 10%) that are made for non profit social and co-op housing (5). And there is going to be 5,500 units (which is 7%) that are made to be built below market rental (5). All of these houses are purposefully being built so they can be lower in cost and more affordable (5). In total they are planning to make 75% of all there houses being built be available to rent not to buy (5). This is amazing for people on the verge of being homeless, students and anyone who needs and affordable home (5).
Overall, we can tell that lack of affordable housing does have an impact on the percentage of homeless people in Vancouver.
- https://hsa-bc.ca/_Library/2024_25_HC/2025_PiT_Homeless_Count_for_GV_Preliminary_Data_Report_250730.pdf
- https://hsa-bc.ca/_Library/2025_HC/2025_Point-in-Time_Homeless_Count_for_Greater_Vancouver_Final_Report.pdf
- https://madeinca.ca/homelessness-statistics-canada/
- https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/Documents/metro-vancouver-housing-data-book-2025.pdf
- https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/housing-vancouver-targets.aspx
- https://wowa.ca/vancouver-housing-market
- https://housing-infrastructure.canada.ca/homelessness-sans-abri/index-eng.html
I really enjoyed reading through this post, great work on your selection of images and I also liked the flow of your post.