Preliminary Homeless Numbers Released

Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:27 AM

Prince George, B.C.- The preliminary numbers are in from the 24 hour count of homeless people in Prince George and the results show little change from a similar count conducted two years ago.

The count was conducted by Community Partners Addressing Homelessness. The count was conducted during a 24 hour period from 6 pm May 16 to 6 pm May 17, 2010.

Data	2008	2010
Surveys collected	375	363
Consider themselves homeless or at risk of homelessness	259 (69%)	280 (77%)
Male	63%	65%
Female	34%	33%
Times	24 hours (3 hr street count started at 6am)	24 hours (3 hr street count started at 4:30am)

The CPAH says one significant difference noted was with those surveys completed by people found on the street.

In 2008, approximately 43 individuals were interviewed outdoors/on the street. In the 2010 survey, only 21 individuals were found.

The CPAH says there are possible explanations for this change:

new units and programs recently implemented.
fewer were found on the street as a result of the recent City clean up efforts.

The CPAH say some agencies have expressed concerns that downtown homeless residents may have resorted to other less safe alternatives to the downtown in much the same way as happened with the sex trade workers who moved to residential areas. The CPAH says it fears some may have moved into drug houses and crack shacks in order to have somewhere to stay. This, in effect, moves the problem underground and makes it almost impossible to track.

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Posted on Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:27 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: He spoke on May 20 2010 12:15 PM

I wonder how many of them are the same people two years later.

Oh, my what should we do. Should we cottle them, and make all things right for these people. Maybe get social services down there, and talk to them about how evil drugs and alchol is to them. May be get mental health down there, and tell these people there are resources out there to help them, and never follow thru on it. May be we should send them to church, and their souls will be saved and they will loose their dependency on chemicals. May be we should spend millions of dollars on building them a shelter, and they will show up.

Oh we did all that, ............ and the stats still don't change..... Oh we better do a study on why.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on May 20 2010 1:56 PM

Yes!...let's do a STUDY!
We love studies!

Posted by: gus on May 20 2010 2:15 PM

I wonder how many people live in the same 1,500sf house they lived in two years ago? More importantly, how many sold that house and now live in a larger house after their kids moved out.

We should take a parallel count of how many people live in 1,500sf to 2,000sf houses and how many live in houses over 2,000sf. Of course that should be broken out as a rate: number of sq feet per person.

It would be beneficial to see both sides of the spectrum and which sees the most improvements.

The attached link show the situation in the USA over the years.
http://www.100khouse.com/2008/10/20/so-many-square-feet-so-few-people

In 1950, the resident of the USA had 292sf of housing. (average house 983 sf with average household of 3.37 people)

In 2006 that had grown to 900sf. (2,349sf with 2.61 per household).

Canada is not much different. We are countries of excess with far to many who do not give a chit about those who need a helping hand.

We volunteer to take ourt kids to soccer and to coach softball. We generally do not volunteer to help those who could use some of our help. We throw a toonie or two into a kettle at Xmas and we are then done with it for another year.

Posted by: He spoke on May 20 2010 2:24 PM

So Gus, I agree with your findings. How many of these people that live in these houses, go out ranting and raving about the environmental impact that companies do. While they themselves are what is fueling the companies.

Posted by: hood rich on May 21 2010 10:41 AM

How about staying on topic? We get it you think the homeless made choices that put them on the street and you are in no way responsible. A valid position but not of any help. These studies do help understand society and help us progress.

I would like to know if any other information was collected and why these numbers are preliminary.