{
  "id": "people-experiencing-homelessness",
  "category": "Housing and homelessness",
  "title": "People experiencing homelessness during the year",
  "geography": "Capital Regional District (census division)",
  "scope": "region",
  "levels": [
    "Provincial (shelter funding and income assistance)",
    "Municipal and regional (land use and services)"
  ],
  "plain_question": "How many people in the Capital Regional District used a shelter, or were on income assistance with no fixed address, during the year?",
  "value": 2531,
  "display_value": "2,531",
  "unit": "people (estimated, over the calendar year)",
  "period": "Calendar year 2024",
  "period_start": "2024-01-01",
  "period_end": "2024-12-31",
  "comparison": {
    "previous_period": "Calendar year 2023",
    "previous_value": 2389,
    "change_percent": 5.9
  },
  "trend": "worsening",
  "trend_basis": "2,531 in 2024 compared with 2,389 in 2023 (+5.9%).",
  "direction_good": "down",
  "right_direction": "Fewer people going through homelessness is better. The estimate also rises when more people use shelters and services, and the page says so; the label still reads Better or Worse because the better direction is widely agreed.",
  "caveats": [
    "This is not a count of people sleeping outdoors. It is an estimate from administrative records: people who stayed at least once in a BC Housing-funded shelter, or who received income assistance with no fixed address for three or more months in a row.",
    "People who are homeless but use neither service (for example, staying temporarily with friends) are not included.",
    "The number can rise when more shelter spaces open and are used, because shelter use is part of the definition.",
    "Geography is the whole Capital Regional District, not the City of Victoria alone.",
    "Estimates are published once a year, with a delay of about a year; 2025 is not yet available."
  ],
  "series": [
    {
      "period": "2019",
      "value": 1943
    },
    {
      "period": "2020",
      "value": 2038
    },
    {
      "period": "2021",
      "value": 2047
    },
    {
      "period": "2022",
      "value": 2189
    },
    {
      "period": "2023",
      "value": 2389
    },
    {
      "period": "2024",
      "value": 2531
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "BC Stats, Government of British Columbia (with BC Housing and the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction)",
    "url": "https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/fbb1584f-7f93-47e7-8001-16e3087bddea/resource/af1592a1-852b-4f1b-bdf9-46454e2c3839/download/hl_geo_summary.csv",
    "dataset_url": "https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/annual-estimates-of-the-homeless-population-in-b-c-",
    "download_url": "https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/fbb1584f-7f93-47e7-8001-16e3087bddea/resource/af1592a1-852b-4f1b-bdf9-46454e2c3839/download/hl_geo_summary.csv",
    "publisher_page": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/affordable-and-social-housing/homelessness/homelessness-cohort",
    "locator": "BC Stats homeless population file (CSV): Capital regional district row, 2024"
  },
  "licence": {
    "name": "Open Government Licence - British Columbia",
    "url": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=A519A56BC2BF44E4A008B33FCF527F61"
  },
  "refresh_frequency": "Annually",
  "data_published": "2026-02-26",
  "retrieved_at": "2026-11-11T10:36:14Z",
  "licence_type": "open",
  "status_rule": {
    "rule": "One rule for every measure: a change smaller than 5% of the earlier value, or smaller than the agency's own margin of error, is “About the same”; no change is calculated across a marked break in a series; homelessness estimates, prices, staffing and comparison pages are shown for context without a label.",
    "reason": "The change is 5.9% of the earlier value, at or above the 5% threshold.",
    "threshold_percent": 5.0
  },
  "changes": {
    "year": {
      "period": "Calendar year 2023",
      "value": 2389,
      "text": "vs 2023: +5.9%"
    },
    "five_year": {
      "period": "2019",
      "years": 5,
      "value": 1943,
      "comparable": true,
      "text": "vs 2019: +30.3%"
    }
  },
  "direction": {
    "type": "outcome",
    "rule": "Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series.",
    "key": "worse",
    "label": "Worse",
    "arrow": "▲",
    "rel": 5.9,
    "delta": null,
    "vs": "Calendar year 2023",
    "cur": "Calendar year 2024",
    "why": "The change is 5.9% of the earlier value, at or above the 5% threshold.",
    "change": "5.9%",
    "one_year": "+5.9%",
    "five": {
      "period": "2019",
      "comparable": true,
      "rel": 30.262480699948537,
      "text": "+30.3%",
      "years": 5
    }
  },
  "source_tier": 1,
  "measure_kind": "outcome",
  "better_measure": {
    "what": "People moved from shelter into housing",
    "who_could_publish": "Province of B.C. (BC Housing)",
    "status": "Not published as data. Not asked for yet."
  },
  "benchmark": {
    "rung": 5,
    "rung_name": "No target found",
    "as_of": "2026-11-12",
    "items": [
      {
        "kind": "none",
        "label": "No target found",
        "text": "No target for the number of people experiencing homelessness found in Belonging in BC (the Province’s homelessness plan) or the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs 2026/27 to 2028/29 Service Plan (February 2026), as of November 12, 2026. Who could set one: the Province of B.C., the Capital Regional District and municipalities.",
        "area": "British Columbia",
        "source": {
          "title": "Belonging in BC, the Province’s homelessness plan (initial phase 2022 to 2025)",
          "publisher": "Province of B.C.",
          "date": "2022",
          "url": "https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/BelongingStrategy.pdf",
          "terms": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/home/copyright",
          "refresh": "Not on a schedule",
          "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
          "checked": "2026-11-12",
          "key": "belonging"
        },
        "documents_checked": [
          {
            "title": "Belonging in BC, the Province’s homelessness plan (initial phase 2022 to 2025)",
            "publisher": "Province of B.C.",
            "date": "2022",
            "url": "https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/BelongingStrategy.pdf",
            "terms": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/home/copyright",
            "refresh": "Not on a schedule",
            "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
            "checked": "2026-11-12",
            "key": "belonging"
          },
          {
            "title": "Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs 2026/27 to 2028/29 Service Plan",
            "publisher": "Province of B.C.",
            "date": "February 2026",
            "url": "https://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2026/sp/pdf/ministry/hous.pdf",
            "terms": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/home/copyright",
            "refresh": "Yearly, with the provincial budget (February)",
            "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
            "checked": "2026-11-12",
            "key": "hous_sp"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "kind": "related",
        "label": "Related target",
        "text": "Related target, not drawn: Canada’s Reaching Home strategy aims to reduce chronic homelessness by 50 percent by 2027-28, across Canada. It covers chronic homelessness only, so it does not fit a count of everyone experiencing homelessness.",
        "area": "Canada",
        "source": {
          "title": "Overview of Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy",
          "publisher": "Government of Canada",
          "date": "August 2022",
          "url": "https://www.canada.ca/en/housing-infrastructure-communities/news/2022/08/overview-reaching-home.html",
          "terms": "https://www.canada.ca/en/transparency/terms.html",
          "refresh": "Not on a schedule",
          "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
          "checked": "2026-11-12",
          "key": "reaching_home"
        },
        "documents_checked": null
      }
    ],
    "drawn": [],
    "rule": "Highest rung found is shown; the site never sets a target. Methods, Targets."
  },
  "benchmarks": [
    {
      "rung": 2,
      "kind": "related",
      "label": "Related target, not drawn: Canada’s Reaching Home strategy aims to reduce chronic homelessness by 50 percent by 2027-28, across Canada. It covers chronic homelessness only, so it does not fit a count of everyone experiencing homelessness.",
      "short": null,
      "document": "reaching_home",
      "page": null,
      "area": "Canada",
      "fit": "text_only",
      "same_area": false,
      "related_reason": "Different unit, definition, period or area; written under the chart, not drawn.",
      "document_url": "https://www.canada.ca/en/housing-infrastructure-communities/news/2022/08/overview-reaching-home.html",
      "applies_here": false,
      "same_measure": false
    }
  ],
  "highest_rung": 5,
  "no_target_found": {
    "documents_checked": [
      "belonging",
      "hous_sp"
    ],
    "checked_on": "2026-11-12",
    "who_could_set": [
      "Province of B.C., Capital Regional District and municipalities"
    ]
  },
  "charts": [
    {
      "title": "People experiencing homelessness per 1,000 residents",
      "fmt": "dec1",
      "unit": "per 1,000",
      "lines": [
        {
          "name": "Capital Region",
          "area": "crd",
          "series": [
            {
              "period": "2019",
              "value": 4.61
            },
            {
              "period": "2020",
              "value": 4.76
            },
            {
              "period": "2021",
              "value": 4.72
            },
            {
              "period": "2022",
              "value": 4.92
            },
            {
              "period": "2023",
              "value": 5.29
            },
            {
              "period": "2024",
              "value": 5.49
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "name": "All of B.C.",
          "area": "bc",
          "series": [
            {
              "period": "2019",
              "value": 4.78
            },
            {
              "period": "2020",
              "value": 4.67
            },
            {
              "period": "2021",
              "value": 5.0
            },
            {
              "period": "2022",
              "value": 5.39
            },
            {
              "period": "2023",
              "value": 5.87
            },
            {
              "period": "2024",
              "value": 5.82
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "merged_from": "homelessness-per-1000"
    }
  ],
  "merged": [
    {
      "id": "homelessness-per-1000",
      "label": "Homelessness per 1,000 residents",
      "display_value": "5.5",
      "unit": "per 1,000 residents",
      "period": "Calendar year 2024",
      "label_text": "About the same this year. Worse over 5 years."
    }
  ],
  "decided_by": [
    {
      "body": "BC",
      "name": "Province of B.C.",
      "decides": "Runs housing programs through BC Housing (the British Columbia Housing Management Commission).",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "mlpha5",
          "label": "Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing Act, s. 5",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96307_01#section5"
        },
        {
          "key": "mlpha10",
          "label": "Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing Act, s. 10",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96307_01#section10"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    },
    {
      "body": "CAN",
      "name": "Government of Canada and Parliament",
      "decides": "Must keep a National Housing Strategy with national goals on housing and homelessness.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "nhsa5",
          "label": "National Housing Strategy Act, s. 5",
          "url": "https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/N-11.2/FullText.html"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    },
    {
      "body": "MUN",
      "name": "Municipal councils of Greater Victoria (13)",
      "decides": "Each council decides land use in its own area and makes bylaws for parks and other public places.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "lga479",
          "label": "Local Government Act, s. 479",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/r15001_14#section479"
        },
        {
          "key": "cc8p",
          "label": "Community Charter, s. 8 (3)",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03026_02#section8"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    },
    {
      "body": "CRD",
      "name": "Capital Regional District Board",
      "decides": "Runs a regional housing trust fund that helps fund affordable housing.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "crd3266",
          "label": "CRD Bylaw No. 3266, Regional Housing Trust Fund Service Establishment Bylaw",
          "url": "https://www.crd.ca/media/file/3266-consolidated-capital-regional-district-regional-housing-trust-fund-service"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    }
  ],
  "main_decision_maker": "Province of B.C.",
  "label_1y": {
    "key": "worse",
    "label": "Worse"
  },
  "label_long": {
    "key": "worse",
    "label": "Worse",
    "years": 5,
    "change": "+30.3%"
  },
  "target_line": {
    "form": 4,
    "text": "No target found",
    "target": null,
    "gap": null,
    "comparison": null,
    "applies_here": false,
    "note": null
  }
}