SURREY — While there's no way to know for sure how many homeless people live on the streets of Surrey, a regional homeless count is done every three years, but it is widely recognized as an undercount.
Preliminary numbers from the 2014 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count were released in May and 403 homeless people were found living in Surrey, compared to 400 in 2011, 402 in 2008 and 392 in 2005.
Jonquil Hallgate of the Surrey Urban Mission said it's no secret just how much of an undercount the regional tally is.
The mission usually sees 200 people for meal service. On the day of the count, only 70 showed up, Hallgate said, and she suspects it's because people don't want to take part in the survey.
"The reality is that we know that there's probably, at any given time, about 2,000 people who are unhoused in Surrey," Hallgate said.
Out of the city's seven town centres, not a single homeless person was identified in the 2014 count in Fleetwood, Guildford, Cloverdale or Newton, she noted.
Though volunteers found evidence of peoples' belongings in forested areas, many were choosing not to be counted. If people don't admit they're homeless, they're simply not counted as part of this survey, she explained.
"Who would think, given what's happened in the last four or five months in Newton, that you wouldn't find one homeless person to count? Where did people go and why are they choosing to abstain from having a voice?" she asked.
While this type of survey may work in Vancouver in a concentrated area like the Downtown Eastside, Hallgate doesn't believe it works in Surrey or most other municipalities in the region.
In the Downtown Eastside people are used to having to identify themselves as being homeless in order to access services but in Surrey, it's a different culture, she said.
"We need to look at the fact that in our community a 24-hour snapshot doesn't work because of the geography and the size," Hallgate said.
"That's the reality. We want to have information that's more accurate and reflects what the actual picture is."
Hallgate's main concern with an undercount is that municipal governments tend to look at lower numbers and see it as a success, but then have a harder time making a case for - and accessing dollars for - future projects.
"(The city has) moved forward and identified things, but in order to create the housing you have to have money. As willing as the city is and proactive they are... we don't have funding coming from Ottawa."
While Hallgate said BC Housing is doing its best, the city simply doesn't have enough dollars.
"The fact that they care, they get points, because they've made it a priority. But we need to look at the dollars that are there and maybe deploy them a bit more creatively," she added.
'IT COMES DOWN TO HOUSING'
Megan Baillie, acting executive director for Keys: Housing and Health Solutions, which operates the Gateway Shelter in Whalley, believes affordable housing is what's truly needed to get people off the streets.
"In Surrey, we're lacking shelter beds, but more than that, it actually comes down to housing," Baillie said. "We lack affordable housing here in Surrey. We feel that by the pressure of the number of people who are trying to access the shelters."
The Gateway Shelter typically hits its 40-bed capacity every night, she said. Those who don't fit can stay in the Front Room area, the drop-in centre that's open 24/7. Asked if she thinks homeless numbers have gone up or down in recent years, Baillie said it's hard to tell.
"Every year we house hundreds of people," Baillie said of her organization. "So if we're housing hundreds of people and there's still 400 on the street, and those numbers have not gone down from the count prior, then that would leave me to believe the numbers are then increasing. However, it's hard to tell. Because of the cyclical nature of homelessness and the transientness of the population, it can be quite challenging to know how many people are living on the streets."
'PROUD' OF CITY'S STRATEGY
Although homeless numbers have gone up in Surrey, the numbers have actually gone down in proportion to population, said Coun. Judy Villeneuve, chair of the social planning advisory committee and president of Surrey Homelessness and Housing Society.
"As much as I don't like to see any homeless numbers...I'm really happy to see that it hasn't grown in proportion to the population growth. I think that we are moving in the right direction."
Villeneuve said since 2005, Surrey has taken in 80,000 people. In that time, the homeless count has gone up by 11.
"I'm really proud we're staying ahead, considering that growth," she said.
As well, Villeneuve pointed out that Surrey had the largest unsheltered homeless population in the region in the 2011 count - 230 of the 400 counted - but this time around more of the population was found to be sheltered.
In this year's count, 140 of the 403 homeless counted in Surrey were unsheltered, which Villeneuve is proud to see. In contrast, 538 of the 1,798 homeless counted in Vancouver were unsheltered.
Villeneuve thinks more people were found sheltered in Surrey this time around because of the city's focus on building housing.
"We haven't been building shelters, we've been building housing," Villeneuve said. "We really want to stop the revolving door of temporary shelters or existing on the streets."
Villeneuve said the city's Master Plan for Housing the Homeless in Surrey, adopted in 2013, calls for an additional 450 units of transitional and supported housing.
"I believe in partnership with BC Housing and others, we'll be able to achieve that," she said, adding that the city is well on its way to hitting the target.
Since 2006, 156 units have been created in Surrey, Villeneuve said, at a variety of facilities including the YWCA Alder Gardens project for single women and dependent children, Quibble Creek Health and Phoenix Transition Housing Centre.
As well, as an immediate priority for action, the housing plan identifies the need to replace the Gateway emergency shelter with a new facility.
The City of Surrey is partnering with BC Housing to create the purpose-built homeless shelter and transition housing facility. The city will provide the land and BC Housing will fund and operate the centre, Villeneuve said.
The location of the facility, near Surrey Memorial Hospital, was up for public hearing on Monday, June 9 and was met with some opposition.
"It was sort of divided between some that supported the location and some that weren't," Villeneuve said of the meeting. "That happens with all kinds of applications that are dealing with transitional housing and supportive housing. So that's not unusual and I think that there were concerns that were expressed from the neighbourhood and concerns from some of the business community."
At the meeting, Villeneuve said council referred the matter back to staff for two weeks to allow council members to take a tour of other purpose-built supportive housing projects - one in Vancouver and one in New Westminster.
As well, council will consider other locations for the project.
"The city has put a timeline on that decision because BC Housing realizes this is our number one priority in the next step of providing proper facilities for people that need support. They do need to have the land rezoned before they'll release funds for the design and move forward," Villeneuve said.
Villeneuve hopes it will have 80 to 100 units, allowing the city to inch even closer to its goal of 450.
And while the veteran councillor has worked to combat homelessness over her entire political career, she feels the last nine years since Mayor Dianne Watts took over have been the "most productive time I've ever served on council."
"I'm feeling very enthused about that."
SUMMER'S TOUGH ON HOMELESS
While those living on the streets have to bear low, life-threatening temperatures in winter months, the summer is not without its challenges.
"Some of the less apparent concerns that our clients face would be things like access to water, sunscreen and places where they can go and get in the shade, and out of the sun," said Baillie.
Baillie said heat stroke and heat exhaustion are a concern during scorching summers and this year is expected to be a hot one.
"We always work with street nurses, for example, and our outreach teams will pack backpacks filled with sunscreen and bottles of water and take it out on the street and try to reach out to people who might not be interested in coming into the shelter."