1 in 4 homeless are seniors, and they’re ‘not really trying to hide it’

In just three years as a Homeless Count volunteer in Vancouver and North Vancouver, Alexandra Kalewska has seen some disturbing changes among the people without fixed addresses.

For one thing, the average age of people living on the streets is trending older.

“We didn’t see a ton of young twenty-something-year-olds. Many of the people we interviewed were 40-plus,” said Kalewska, a parishioner at Christ the Redeemer in West Vancouver. “We definitely interviewed more seniors.”

The Homeless Count, a research project by the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association, considers people aged 55 or older a senior. The count includes sending trained volunteers on predetermined routes in Metro Vancouver with clipboards and a list of questions to gain a snapshot of homelessness over a 24-hour period. The count is held in Metro Vancouver every three years, but annually in the City of Vancouver. The homeless participate in the count voluntarily and their answers are confidential.

One elderly person Kalewska interviewed had been “renovicted” – evicted so landlords could renovate his suite and rent it at a higher rate. The senior had immigrated to Canada 20 years ago and after looking for work ended up driving a truck part-time. In the end, it wasn’t earning enough to cover his living expenses.

Another senior was clean-shaven and wearing fresh clothing but carrying several backpacks and bags. When volunteers asked if he knew any homeless people in the area, he identified himself as one. He had recently been released from prison and was dealing with a mental health condition and possible brain injury. Although he was able to find places to eat and wash his clothing, he was having difficulty finding work.

As she walked through various areas in Vancouver’s downtown core, Kalewska also noticed more people camping outdoors and sleeping in tents, cars, or doorways.

“In the past, you would see more people tucked away” and hidden from sight, she said. “I think in the last few years there has been more apparent homelessness, where people are right on Georgia Street, on the main strip, in the doorways and not really trying to hide it.”

Kalewska’s personal observations are consistent with the preliminary findings of the Metro Vancouver Homeless Count. A report released in August showed 25 per cent of homeless people surveyed were over 55 years of age, a 23 per cent increase from 2017.

Meanwhile, the number of homeless under 25 has been dropping, from 20 per cent in 2014 to only eight per cent this year. 

Covenant House Vancouver, which serves at-risk youth, said while the lower number of homeless youth reported in the preliminary report is positive, it does not paint a full picture of the situation.

“The Homeless Count provides a snapshot view of what was happening in shelters and on the streets on one particular day,” said senior manager Kristy Hayter. She hopes the full report expected this fall will provide a better understanding of the results.

Scott Small, director of Catholic Charities Shelter Services and the new chairperson of the Homeless Services Association of B.C., has been watching the number of homeless seniors downtown steadily rise in recent years.

“Rewind to 2008, it was eight per cent,” he said. “In 12 years, it’s tripled,” and there are still too few senior-specific resources out there, he said. “We’re working on it slowly as a sector.”

He said there is also an over-representation of minorities among the homeless.

“We don’t have a lot of black individuals in the Lower Mainland – it’s 1.8 per cent of the population – yet six per cent of the homeless population is considered black or self-identifies as black,” he said.

Meanwhile, one-third of people experiencing homelessness identify as Indigenous, despite representing just 2.5 per cent of the population according to the 2016 census.

“Our most vulnerable people that we welcome into Canada (and) our most vulnerable people that we are recognizing their unceded territories in Canada are wildly under-serviced and in need of greater resources and attention,” said Small.

He, too, has noticed a rise in people without fixed addresses sleeping in tents, cars, RVs, and other temporary places.

“There is definitely a continuing upward trend of people that are independent and eking out their own lives of solitude and not accessing the system and living off the grid,” he said.

Although they are considered homeless for reporting purposes, “half of them would say they are not,” said Small.

They might be retired or renovicted individuals who find themselves without enough cash to pay the rent, but they may still own a car or have enough savings to purchase a used car or RV, said Small. They tend to move frequently to avoid bylaw officers and enjoy the independence for a little while.

“It’s usually people that are like, ‘I’ll get on the waiting list for B.C. Housing, but it’s 11 years to get a house … I don’t want to go to a homeless shelter and wait for years” to get into single-room-occupancy (SRO) accommodation.

Eventually, he said, funds run out, vehicles break down, and individuals tend to end up in shelters anyway.

The preliminary report for 2020 identified 3,634 individuals as experiencing homelessness in Metro Vancouver. The total of those considered sheltered (or staying in shelters, jails, hospitals, detox facilities, transition homes, or safe houses) was 2,605, while those unsheltered was 1,029.

Vancouver had the largest number of people surveyed as homeless (sheltered and unsheltered) at 2,095. Surrey was second at 644.

Compared to data gathered in 2017, homelessness in the Metro Vancouver area has “overall remained stable” with an increase of 29 people without homes in 2020.

Burnaby, Surrey, North Vancouver, Richmond, and Langley, saw their numbers of homeless people rise, while Vancouver, the Tri-Cities area, White Rock, Ridge Meadows, New Westminster, and Delta saw their numbers go down.

The preliminary findings were released in August. A full report with more details (including length of time experiencing homelessness, income, health, and services used) is expected sometime this fall.

The Homelessness Services Association of B.C. also hosts Homeless Counts in other parts of B.C. Those figures are available here.