Langley has third largest population of people experiencing homelessness though numbers stabilized

Read an updated post about the 2020 Homelessness Count.

Preliminary data from the 2020 Homeless Count in Metro Vancouver was recently released by the BC Non-Profit Housing Association. This count of people experiencing homelessness occurs region-wide every three years. It is a point-in-time sampling of people over a 24-hour period from March 3rd through March 4th.

This report shows a minimum estimation of people visibly experiencing homelessness in Metro Vancouver. The count does not include people who are staying with friends, living in cars, in jail, in hospital, or in locations which people performing the count were not able to enter.

Like the 2017 count, the top three community where people are experiencing homelessness are Vancouver (2,095), Surrey (644), and Langley (209). These three community represent 80% of the people counted.

The following chart shows the number of people experiencing homelessness in Langley since 2005 from the current and past counts.

The largest increase in Langley occurred between 2014 and 2017. In 2020, it appears that the number of people visibly experiencing homelessness has stabilized.

Since 2017, an integrated case management team to support people experiencing homelessness was created for Langley. This team connects people experiencing homelessness with housing. The Creek Stone supportive housing facility has also recently opened.

There is still more work to be done in Langley. 209 people is too much, and we will need the continued support of the provincial government through BC Housing and Fraser Health to get people experiencing homelessness housed and supported.

For more information, please view the full preliminary data report.