‘A wake-up call’: Nearly twice as many B.C. women facing homelessness, new data show

She may have a job, a car, and somewhere to sleep tonight — and still be homeless.

B.C. women experiencing homelessness are often staying on friends’ couches, sleeping in vehicles or staying in unsafe relationships rather than sleeping on the streets, service providers say.

In Metro Vancouver’s 2025 count, women accounted for 31 per cent of people surveyed experiencing homelessness, up from 27 per cent in 2017. But those counts capture only a snapshot of homelessness on a single day, while the provincial data captures people experiencing homelessness over a longer period.

“I hope it’s a wake-up call for governments,” said Jenna Breuer, of Atira Women’s Society, a Vancouver non-profit serving women affected by homelessness.

“Many people in British Columbia now are folks who are one step away from needing a housing subsidy — one actual paycheque away.”

B.C. Housing has collected information on people experiencing homelessness since 2019, but it was not made public on the province’s website until April. The data identifies people who either received social assistance for at least three consecutive months while reporting no fixed address, or stayed at a B.C. Housing-affiliated shelter.

New numbers shows women experiencing homelessness in B.C. rose 46 per cent in five years, to 11,416 in 2024 from 7,848 in 2019. Men identified as homeless rose 30 per cent over the same period.

Women aged 35 to 44 had the biggest increase, jumping 71 per cent from 1,769 in 2019 to 3,017 in 2024. It increased 37 per cent among women aged 25 to 34, and to 42 per cent among women 45 to 54.

But the rise was especially sharp among older women — 55 per cent among those 55 and older.

Andy Yan, director of the City program at Simon Fraser University, said the new figures are more comprehensive and suggests a “huge” homeless population uncaptured by traditional point-in-time counts, which are conducted in regions every few years.

Across Metro Vancouver, the B.C. data shows 14,111 people experienced homelessness in 2024. It is nearly three times the 5,232 people identified in the region’s latest point-in-time count in 2023.

“The biggest story is, what’s the real number of homeless people in Metro Vancouver?” Yan said. “It’s not that one dataset is wrong and one is right; they are two different ways of measuring the same ongoing humanitarian crisis unfolding in British Columbia.”

For women, that hidden homelessness can make the gap even harder to see. The City of Vancouver, where more than half of the area’s homeless population was counted, says women are more likely to be missed because they may stay temporarily with friends or family.

Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, a social service agency that provides supports for women, said that by the time a woman reaches a shelter, “there is often a much longer story behind that,” the society said in an email.