Annual Estimates of the Homeless Population in B.C.

BC Stats (with partners at the Ministry of Housing, Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (SDPR), and BC Housing) has developed aggregated summary statistics estimating the homeless population in B.C. These estimates were derived from three administrative service use datasets from the Data Innovation Program (DIP): shelter use from BC Housing, social assistance payments from SDPR, demographic information from the Health medical service plan (MSP) central demographics file. The analytic definition of homelessness includes individuals who received income assistance with no fixed address for at least three consecutive months or those who visited a shelter at any time throughout the year. Estimates have been aggregated into four tables: * Annual estimates of the homeless population by age and gender * Annual estimates of the homeless population by chronicity category (chronic vs non-chronic homelessness) * Annual estimates of the homeless population by census division * Monthly estimates of the homeless population by service use (income assistance with no fixed address, shelter use, or both) \ Estimates are available for 2019-2024. **Full methodology details are available in the Homeless Cohort Development - Technical Documentation resource.** Historic releases of this data can be found here: https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/d06c29e6-dcda-4f53-aaa4-762ba2934760 Files (slice {"file": url}): - Annual Homeless Population Estimates by Age and Gender (csv): https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/fbb1584f-7f93-47e7-8001-16e3087bddea/resource/39ec65cc-6cf2-4c9a-bf41-65253c0d24f1/download/hl_age_and_gender_summary.csv - Annual Homeless Population by Census Division (csv): https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/fbb1584f-7f93-47e7-8001-16e3087bddea/resource/af1592a1-852b-4f1b-bdf9-46454e2c3839/download/hl_geo_summary.csv - Monthly Homeless Population Estimates by Service Use (csv): https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/fbb1584f-7f93-47e7-8001-16e3087bddea/resource/200be1bf-6fe3-4722-b80e-63d575ad2d77/download/hl_month_by_defn_source.csv - Annual Homeless Population Estimates by Chronicity Category (csv): https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/fbb1584f-7f93-47e7-8001-16e3087bddea/resource/a7697e86-7a8b-4d41-9406-55538a8e1663/download/hl_category_summary.csv

Cite as: Government of British Columbia | Gouvernment de la Colombie-Britannique. Annual Estimates of the Homeless Population in B.C.. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/fbb1584f-7f93-47e7-8001-16e3087bddea