While the region's numbers are increasing, Burnaby's homeless population has gone down, according to the latest Metro Vancouver Homeless Count.
The count takes place every three years and provides a snapshot of the minimum number of homeless people in the Greater Vancouver area.
Across the region, there were 2,770 homeless people counted in a 24-hour period on March 12, an increase from 2,650 in the 2011 count.
In Burnaby, however, the count found 58 homeless people, which is down from 78 found in the last count.
The decrease shows that people are using outreach services, according to Wanda Mulholland from the Burnaby Task Force on Homelessness.
"The numbers went down," she said. "It shows that outreach works."
While the numbers may be decreasing, Mulholland pointed out that the Progressive Housing Society, the main group that helps the local homeless population, assists between 30 to 40 new clients each month. Over the course of a year, from April 2012 to March 2013, Progressive helped find housing for 87 people. But that's only an average of about seven people per month, which shows there are more people seeking help than people finding housing.
To make matters more difficult, affordable housing in Burnaby can be hard to find.
"Burnaby citizens living in extreme poverty struggle to find affordable places to rent in a municipality which has a market rental vacancy of two per cent, high cost of rent, and old rental stock which is subject to fires and disrepair, and is often demolished and rebuilt as units for sale," Mulholland said.
The triennial count, conducted by volunteers, shows varying numbers for Burnaby. The first count in 2005 found 42 local homeless people, the next in 2008 found 86, then 78 in 2011, and finally 58, last month.
Burnaby does not have a permanent year-round homeless shelter, but there is an extreme weather shelter that opens when the weather is bad enough. Of this year's 58 homeless people, 44 were not in shelters, 13 were in emergency facilities, and one person had no fixed address.
The count includes people who are couch-surfing or sleeping outdoors or in shelters, as well as women fleeing violence staying in transition houses and youth in safe houses. People with no fixed address, who were in hospitals, jails and detox centres were also included.
