Women, Indigenous and Black people account for a growing proportion of Vancouver’s record homeless population, according to a report headed to city council on Tuesday.

The numbers are drawn from the 2025 Metro Vancouver homeless count, conducted over a 24-hour period in March of last year, but drills down into Vancouver-specific data and provides a more detailed snapshot of the lives of unhoused people in the city.

Council is set to hear the report for information, but isn’t slated to vote on any policy changes.

Vancouver’s homeless population hit a record high of 2,715 last year, up 12 per cent from 2023, according to the report from the city’s general manager of arts, culture and community services.

That represents more than half of Metro Vancouver’s homeless population of 5,232, despite the City of Vancouver being home to just a quarter of the region’s population.

About 40 per cent of people counted were unsheltered, while about 60 per cent were in emergency shelters, detox centres, transitional housing, hospitals or police facilities.

Evictions, low incomes, substance use and flight from conflict or abuse are cited among the complex factors behind homelessness in the city.

Demographic changes

The report found a growing proportion of women in the city’s homeless population, accounting for 28 per cent in 2025, up from 23 per cent in 2023. Those numbers, it said, are likely an underestimate.

“It is worth noting that women are less likely to be counted as they are more likely to be hidden, stay temporarily with friends or family and [are] difficult to find and survey for the count,” the report states.

Lisa Rupert, B.C. vice-president of housing and violence prevention with the YWCA Metro Vancouver, said women remain a hidden face of the homelessness crisis, and represent a demand for housing that far exceeds supply.

“Many women, particularly those with children, are missing from official counts because they are staying temporarily with friends or family,” she said in a statement.

“While intimate partner violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women, some remain in violent or unsafe homes because the risk of homelessness feels even greater.”

Indigenous and Black people also account for a disproportionate and growing proportion of the city’s homeless population.

Forty-two per cent of respondents identified as Indigenous, up from 39 per cent in 2023, despite accounting for just 2.5 per cent of Vancouver’s population.

Indigenous people experiencing homelessness were also more likely to be unsheltered (51 per cent) than sheltered (35 per cent).

Nine per cent of respondents identified as Black or members of the African diaspora, up from seven per cent in 2023, despite accounting for just one per cent of the city’s overall population.

While about three-quarters of respondents were adults, nearly half reported first experiencing homelessness as youth, and 38 per cent said they’d spent time in government care.

Forty per cent of unhoused seniors said they’d first become homeless after the age of 55.

The report pins primary responsibility for homelessness on the provincial and federal governments, but points to a variety of “complementary” city initiatives, including emergency shelters, supportive housing, outreach, harm reduction and community-based crisis response.

It says the city has provided 48 sites for the creation of 4,900 units of social and supportive housing since 2017, 2,800 of which were now online, with another 12 sites to be advanced in 2026.

Council has also approved $8 million annually to expand mental health and substance use programs, according to the report.