Homelessness in Vancouver

Homelessness in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is a social crisis that has been rapidly accelerating over the last decade. According to the United Nations, homelessness can either be relative or absolute. Absolute homelessness describes people living in absence of proper physical shelter. Relative homelessness describes people living in poor conditions of health or security, including an absence of both personal safety and steady income despite having physical shelter to reside in. As of 2011^[update], roughly 2,651 people in Vancouver are subject to one of these types of homelessness, or are transitioning between them. Homelessness as a social issue in Vancouver originated from federal funding cuts to affordable housing. After market housing increased, the cost of housing became one of Vancouver's main causes of homelessness, alongside lack of income. The homeless population in Vancouver have developed or previously suffered from mental health and addiction issues, and they are subjected to high amounts of crime-related victimization. There have been several approaches to reducing the homeless population in Metro Vancouver by the city and other organizations. As of 2011^[update], the rate of homelessness in Vancouver has stopped increasing, but it is not being reduced either.

Homelessness was not an issue in Vancouver until after the 1980s. Prior to then, there had generally been enough affordable housing provided by surpluses from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), which had been initiated in 1946 by the federal government. However, national affordable housing programs received funding cuts from the government during the 1980s. Total housing stock increased after the federal funding cuts, but it was from private sector development of market housing rather than affordable housing. Between the affordable housing cuts, and increase in market housing, real estate grew to be out of the price range of some lower-income groups.

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