Metro Vancouver's homeless count will be a little different this year
Volunteer counters will be given more time in an effort to improve the accuracy of this year's tally
Metro Vancouver's Task Force on Homelessness is making a few tweaks to how the region's homeless count will be carried out this March.
"The enumeration in the enhanced urban cores, for example the Newton area of Surrey, will take place over three days," said Langley Township Coun. Charlie Fox who also sits on the task force.
"So there is a bit of an elongated process there to try and take the time to identify the people and give the enumerators the time to actually get to the locations and areas that they think these people are actually living in."
Fox said the volunteer counters will also spend more time searching near waterways and in parks.
"We're really trying to create a true and accurate sense of the magnitude of the homelessness issue in terms of actual numbers," he said.
"We're trying to touch every potential area these people are living in."
The last count across the region took place in 2014 and found 2,770 homeless people, the majority of whom lived in Vancouver.
But, organizers acknowledge the counts likely underestimate how many homeless people there actually are in the region.