At least 46 homeless people died in British Columbia in 2014—a 70 per cent increase from the year before.1 It is the highest number of homeless deaths in a single year in this province since 2008 and it marks a stark increase in the number of vulnerable lives that were unnecessarily lost.

Still Dying on the Streets updates Megaphone’s landmark report on homeless deaths, Dying on the Streets (which looked at homeless deaths from 2006- 2013), with the most recently available data from 2014.

As municipalities across B.C. continue to struggle with a lack of affordable housing and appropriate harm reduction services, a growing number of homeless people are dying on the streets and in shelters. With overdose deaths rising dramatically in 2015, evictions of residents in low-income buildings increasing, and affordable housing still not meeting demand, the number of homeless deaths in this province promises to only increase.