Help needed with this year's Homeless Count

Ever wonder how many people are homeless in Richmond?  And whether the situation is improving or getting worse?  Or why some homeless people never seek refuge in shelters?  The Metro Vancouver regional Homeless Count attempts to answer these types of questions and more.  The counts are held every three years and there's one schedule for this year, specifically Wed, 16 March.   These are large undertakings and rely largely on volunteers to do the counting.

I attended a kickoff meeting for the Richmond count at Broadmoor Baptist last week.  Ten people were in attendance, seven of whom are either volunteers or staff at the St Alban shelter (and 3 of the 7 are also members of Richmond's Poverty Response Committee).

On count day, volunteers will head out in pairs to locations where persons who are homeless typically spend time: bottle depots, McDonald's, libraries, food bank, community meal etc, and gather basic demographic information.    Volunteers will be trained on how to approach people, how to fill in the survey, etc.  The count will be done largely during daylight hours.   

Results of previous counts are available here: Metro Vancouver Homelessness.  Interesting reading.  In Richmond, the number of homeless persons counted were:

2002: 29

2005: 33

2008: 56

And in 2008, Richmond was singled out as the municipality with the "highest incidence of senior homelessness (55 and older)" on a percentage basis.

Last time,  60 volunteers covered Richmond and we're hoping for at least that number this year.  If you'd like to volunteer, contact Richmond's Poverty Response Committee, by clicking here: info@richmondprc.org