The City of Kamloops will be conducting another Point-In-Time homeless count on Oct. 17 and 18 this year.

Community and Emergency Supports Supervisor Natasha Hartson says the City is required to be a part of this nationally coordinated count, as part of its Reaching Home agreement with the federal government.

“Over the years, the timing of this count has varied between provinces and Kamloops most recently hosted a count in April 2023, in coordination with our provincial partners, Hartson said. “The federal government’s goal however is to have nationally coordinated counts every three years across 85 Reaching Home communities and an annual enumeration.”

“The most recent Reaching Home contract amendment required communities to host a fall 2024 count to align the communities.”

The 2023 Point-In-Time count – which was done in coordination with the Province – identified 312 people in Kamloops who were experiencing homelessness. The next provincial count is scheduled for the spring of 2025.

“We have been now taking part in trilateral meetings with BC Housing and Infrastructure Canada to discuss our approach to harmonizing the results from the fall 2024 federal counts with the provincial 2025 count so that we are not required another count in 2025 in order to be in that report,” Hartson added.

Hartson told Council this year’s count will once again include also Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc. She told council City staff presented to Tk’emlúps council in March

“During the 2023 count, we primarily focused on the riverbank areas,” Hartson said.

“This time around, in addition to their staff participating on the Point-In-Time count committee, we are also working to establish a plan with some of their key departments to understand their capacity to support a more expanded count into other areas on Tk’emlúps land.”

A Point-In-Time count is used to provide a snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness within a community in a 24-hour period. It serves two functions – to count the number of people experiencing homelessness and why they are in that situation, though advocates say the hidden homeless – like couch surfers or people living in their vehicles – are likely to be under-represented.

Once the count is complete, Hartson says city staff will compile the data into a report, which will be made public in spring next year.

“The data collected will be shared with Infrastructure Canada, BC Housing, and the Ministry of Housing and will form part of the national and provincial reports,” Hartson said. “The data will be aggregated with available data from other homeless counts to provide an overview, including cross-tabulations between common indicators collected across the communities.”

You can find the entire 2023 Point-In-Time report here.