Tally shows many recovery facility clients homeless

People often slip through cracks when treatment comes to an end, advocates say

A first-of-its-kind survey of homelessness in Surrey shows that a majority of people staying in the city's recovery facilities have been homeless at some point and more than one-third had nowhere to go after their stay.

The results of the count, which was conducted in early March, shortly after the Metro Vancouver regional homeless count, were released Friday.

Keir Macdonald, CEO of the Phoenix Society, said that 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the people his organization sees in its facilities don't have a fixed address — they come from the streets, from shelters, from insecure housing.

That's why he advocated strongly for those in recovery facilities to be counted. They haven't been included in past regional homeless counts because the counts are designed to cover people who don't have a place of their own where they could expect to stay for more than 30 days, and people in recovery most often stay there longer.

“It in many ways validated some of the assumptions and some of what we'd seen in a small sampling at the Phoenix Society,” Macdonald said.

The Surrey count involved 30 licensed residential substance-use facilities and registered supportive recovery facilities in the city, which have 350 spaces, and 192 people responded to the survey. Surrey has an estimated 50 to 55 facilities with spaces for 500 to 600 people.

Of those who responded, 68 per cent reported that they had experienced homelessness in their past and 33 per cent said they had been homeless in the previous year, while 78 per cent said they didn't have a place where they pay rent.

Thirty-four per cent of people said that when they left the facility they expected to rent a place of their own, while 39 per cent said they weren't sure or didn't know where they would live. Sixteen per cent said they would stay with a family member or friend.

“There is a high chance and a high risk these individuals will re-enter the homelessness system and they just don't get captured,” said Macdonald.

The survey was conducted with help from the B.C. Non Profit Housing Association, but separate from Metro Vancouver's homeless count, which is done every three years throughout the region. The survey is a point-in-time snapshot that looks at those who are experiencing homelessness, the final results of which were released this week.

As a caveat, point-in-time homeless tallies are generally understood to be undercounts, and this year the information was collected before the COVID-19 pandemic, so the final report likely doesn't adequately reflect the current state of regional homelessness.

This year's count, which was also conducted in early March, found a total of 3,634 people experiencing homelessness, with the largest numbers in Vancouver (2,095), Surrey (644) and Langley (209). The regional total is less than one per cent higher than the 2017 count, which suggests that homelessness remained somewhat consistent, and the number of people counted was seven per cent higher in Surrey.

Those who pushed for the Surrey count want to see those in recovery facilities included in future regional homeless counts, to highlight that people in those programs are vulnerable when their treatment comes to an end and ensure they're included when housing plans are being made.

“At the moment we're falling short because we don't have a plan. We're not looking at a comprehensive way to figure out what a realistic amount of housing is and we sure as heck aren't keeping up with the demand,” said Jonquil Hallgate, chairwoman of the Surrey Road to Home Society.

Lorraine Copas, chairwoman of the Greater Vancouver Reaching Home community advisory board and executive director of SPARCB.C., said point-in-time counts have limitations, so over the years specific research in different areas has rounded out the data. She said it makes sense in future years to repeat the recovery facility count in Surrey and, if possible, expand it to other municipalities.

It ... validated some of the assumptions and some of what we'd seen in a small sampling at the Phoenix Society.