Life in Canada isn’t as rosy as all Canadians would like to believe, as a matter of fact, we can often be closer to living on the streets then we all think. I know this first hand, having lived on the streets on Vancouver as a youth, a hard city still for the homeless and the Frasier Valley is beginning to see an increase in homelessness. Unusual in rural areas, at least less prevalent, homelessness has been on the increase in the Frasier Valley over the last two years, in spite of the fact that local agencies tasked with helping the homeless have managed to find homes for around 500 individuals during the past year.

A survey done by private agencies reported on March 10th and 11th that a count of homeless individuals in the Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission and Agassiz-Harrison areas showed that 465 people were found to be sleeping outside, sleeping in shelters or stated they had no permanent place to sleep that night, an increase of 13.4 percent over last years survey.

The individuals located included seven children under 15 years of age and a person over 75 years of age in the group of homeless people, something that you never would have seen years ago, we always took care of our own in rural areas, people have hardened in the valley, and times have changed.

The increase in the valley was a little less than the 19 percent increase over 2006 figures seen in the Metro Vancouver area, where over 2,500 people were found living on the streets without a permanent place to sleep.

Cheap housing has become harder and harder to find in the Fraser Valley as in all cities in the province, if you aren’t employed then you are quickly at the mercy of social service agencies and once homeless it’s harder to come back.

Elected officials, concerned citizens and agencies who have taken up the monumental task of trying to provide for those who have no place to sleep at night have been successful putting the plight of the homeless on the radar of Canadians.

Hopefully their fellow Canadians, now that their aware of the plight of some of their fellow Canadians, will reach out with the understanding and compassionate hand Canadians are known for in the world, to their neighbours sleeping in alleys and under whatever shelter they can find.