‘It’s getting much worse:’ survey shows Nanaimo’s homeless population surging
NANAIMO — The homeless population in Nanaimo nearly doubled over the last two years, a recent survey showed.
Data supplied to NanaimoNewsNOW by Andrew Thornton, point-in-time homeless count coordinator, showed 325 people were identified as homeless during a city-wide survey April 18, well above the 174 people counted in a 2016 survey.
“What really struck me is people are really struggling,” Thornton said. “It’s not just in the short-term, people are reporting they’ve been continuously homeless, five,10, 20 years.”
He noted most of the people surveyed are longtime Nanaimo citizens.