Burnaby has unanimously endorsed 13 recommendations from a task force with the goal of making homelessness in the city “rare, brief and one time.”
The mayor’s task force on unsheltered community members recommended the city create shelter services and a range of housing options, establish coordinated outreach to the unsheltered community and improve support for unsheltered people.
The number of people experiencing homelessness in Burnaby rose by 69 per cent from 124 people in 2020 to 209 in 2023, according to the final report from the task force. Of those 124 people, 77 people were unsheltered, compared to 19 in 2020.
The city expects to lose shelter space in the next year and a half with the closure of its Douglas Road shelter and Buller Avenue temporary winter shelter.
The task force recommended Burnaby create a shelter strategy that prioritizes getting more shelter space.
Data and ‘meanwhile’ housing: recommendations
The group also recommended the city create and manage a “By-Name List,” a list of the names of people known to be experiencing homelessness.
The list includes demographic information, such as a person’s name, homeless history and housing needs (which is collected and shared with their consent) and provides insight into how people access services and tracks how people move into and out of homelessness.
Edmonton has created a by-name list using data from more than 60 agencies which interact with unsheltered people and enables the collection of real-time data.
The task force also recommended working with developers to explore using vacant apartments and homes awaiting demolition and redevelopment as “meanwhile spaces” for unsheltered individuals while more permanent housing is sought.
Other recommendations included:
- City to review the land and properties it owns, explore how to offer the stock as affordable rental when properties become vacant
- City to engage with local non-profits to identify priority populations, such as low-income or newcomer families, who could rent those city-owned properties
The task force also recommended Burnaby should consider acquiring land for low-income housing.
Staff are in the process of gathering partners to create the year-round shelter strategy and have set up the beginnings of an inter-agency working group, including the city’s intervention support workers, Fraser Health’s Integrated Homelessness Action Response Team (IHART) and Progressive Housing Society outreach workers, to coordinate outreach services to unsheltered people.
The task force met seven times between 2023 and 2024 and was facilitated by Diana Bulley of Ideaspace Consulting.
Staff must provide a progress report on the recommendations by Sept. 30, 2025.
Read the report here for more details on each of the recommendations.
Task force recommendations
First priority recommendations (1) must be started immediately, and second priority items (2) must be started before Oct. 31.
- Develop a shelter strategy for the City of Burnaby (1)
- Develop and implement a City of Burnaby guideline for the design and operation of shelters (2)
- Update the city’s housing needs assessment, ensuring it accurately reflects the needs of people who need support with housing and complex care (1)
- Advocate to other levels of government for rent subsidies to support inclusionary rental units the City has obtained through the development process (2)
- Work with the development sector to explore temporary transitional housing within buildings slated for redevelopment (2)
- Leverage city-owned land and housing to increase the stock of affordable housing (1)
- Identify priority populations and criteria for how city-owned houses are tenanted as they become vacant (2)
- Consider a land acquisition strategy for the purposes of supporting the housing needs of low, or very low-income households (2)
- Advocate to the health authority to fund complex care / licensed care housing in Burnaby (1)
- Create an interagency working group whose mandate is to develop and implement strategies in support of people who are unsheltered (1)
- Create and manage a By Name List to provide the city with accurate data related to who is unsheltered in Burnaby and inform planning (1)
- Create and maintain an interagency working group to meet on a regular basis and support people who are unsheltered (1)
- Explore the provision of day programming, services to be provided, its location, and its funding for people who are unsheltered (1)
