The Strathcona Housing Alliance is conducting a Point in Time (PiT) Count on April 30.
The PiT Count, also sometimes known as "homeless counts", are a 24-hour snapshot that looks at the demographics, service use and trends of the unhoused population in Campbell River.
"Homeless Count is a misnomer," said Stefanie Hendrickson, executive consultant with the Strathcona Housing Alliance. "PiT Counts look to survey people who live unconventionally where they don't pay rent )or equivalent."
The count will be the fourth in the community, with ones done in 2018, 2021 and 2023.
People who will be surveyed in the PiT Count, include people who stay with friends or acquaintances ("couch surfing"), sleep in vehicles, boats, or RVs, camp, sleep unsheltered, sleep in buildings or on a friends' property, or stay in shelters or short-term transitional housing.
The survey should only take five minutes and is anonymous and will be conducted in-person or on the phone. On April 30, PiT Count teams will be at the Campbell River Library from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. or the Women's Centre from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to conduct they survey. Food and refreshments, as well as laundry and shower coupons, mini soaps and shampoos will be provided.
Those unable to attend can call in at 778-348-0762 or 250-830-4092.
The data collected by the teams will be used by the community, agencies and the province to identify what is happening in the community with housing and how to better respond to these issues.
"This data is crucial for our community, and it couldn't happen without the dozens of people who will be involved in the day. It takes a community," said Hendrickson.
The 2021 PiT Count saw homelessness increase by 40 per cent since the first count in 2018. In 2023, it went up 70 per cent.
“We know that people are struggling significantly more in 2023 financially. With high housing costs, shortage of housing, rising household costs with inflation, it’s a substantial impact,” Hendrickson told the Campbell River Mirror in 2023. “And in 2021, it didn’t show up in the top three.”
Hendrickson also told the Mirror that every community who did the count also so an increase. The top reason for the increase in housing loss was "not enough income." Hendrickson also noted in 2023 that food services was a top service accessed in 2023, but was not among the top three in 2021.
“I thought it was interesting that we saw food services as the top service accessed, and again that didn’t show up at all in the top three in 2021,” she said. “So I thought that was interesting and kind of spoke to how food security is affecting folks with inflation and the cost of living going up."
More people sleeping in vehicles was also a significant increase from 2021.
- With files from Marc Kitteringham
