This undated photo shows tents on the sidewalk on a street in the Okanagan.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Carey Lausnes/ Facebook

It's hard enough counting the number of people living on the streets but it's nearly impossible to count the individuals and families living in cars, tents or RVs hidden around cities in Kamloops and the Okanagan, nor those students and employees couch surfing, moving from place to place.

These are the so-called hidden homeless, people living in poverty who wouldn't be captured in various point-in-time counts done every year.

“A lot of the general public bases their opinions of homeless people on the mess they are seeing,” said founder of All Are Family Outreach Society in Kelowna, Clary Lausnes. “Those families living in a tent don’t want to be seen because they don’t want to get caught by family services and get their kids taken away. They are constantly moving from place to place to overnight and are hard to keep track of.”

Since officially starting her volunteer run outreach in 2014, Lausnes said she is seeing a steady increase of “hidden” families living on the streets. This includes young parents with children and people with serious medical issues. Add the shortage in subsidized rental housing and dwindling food bank supplies, these families are in dire situations. 

“There is a single mom and her son living in a tent and recently we were able to put a mother and child living in their car into a motel,” she said. “We have a person bringing an RV to help a mom and dad with a toddler who were evicted and will otherwise be on the street.”

Lausnes said she recently spoke with a lady with kidney disease who is facing homelessness and is currently trying to raise money to get a single mom with two children under the age of 10 out of a tent and into an RV, but they are still hundreds of dollars away from finalizing the purchase.

“(The mother) has been paying what she can toward the RV for a few months but is still $700 dollars short and the person selling it to her is also in a situation right now where they need to have heat in their house. It’s kind of come down to a crunch.”

All Are Family Outreach Society responds to suicide calls, and marital and child abuse calls for the homeless, along with helping to provide clothing, fuel, medical costs and rent. The non-profit depends on donations to carry out the service, but donations have dropped, furthering the growing crisis. 

“The donations have dropped, typically we get a 2 to 3 percent increase over a year and without that we had to close for a few months earlier this year,” she said. “Donators are struggling themselves and have to reach deep in their pockets.”

Point-In-Time counts are annual counts done by cities to measure the amount of sheltered or unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on any given night. While those numbers are continuing to increase in Kamloops and the Okanagan, they don’t account for the unknown number of the hidden homeless.

It isn't news that finding an affordable housing rental unit in the Okanagan is almost impossible, further limiting options for families. 

“Kelowna has a major shortage of subsidized rental housing,” said a report on a new Housing Needs Assessment that went to Kelowna city council in September. “We need a tenfold increase in the delivery of subsidized rental housing annually, requiring unprecedented collaboration and partnership.”

The report shows that only 2% of new housing being built is classified as subsidized instead of the 25% that's needed to meet demand.

READ MORE: HOUSING CRISIS: Senior facing homelessness after housing rental scam

On top of that local food banks are struggling more than ever to meet a growing demand. 

In a recent iNFONews.ca interview with CEO of the Central Okanagan food banks Trevor Moss, he estimated the food bank client base in the Central Okanagan has grown by 20% since January due mostly to inflation. He’s seeing more working families – especially those with two adults and two children – coming in for help.

“It’s getting very cold out,” Lausnes said. “We’re seeing a lot of hunger and people choosing between medicine and food or housing and food. They have no heat. They have a choice, they can pay rent and have a dry place to starve to death.”

READ MORE: First tiny homes in Kelowna to be built near Rail Trail homeless camp

All Are Family Outreach Society serves Kelowna, Oyama, Armstrong and Vernon, and is sponsoring Christmas hampers for 11 families this winter, but there are many more reaching out for help. Lausnes is asking those who follow her page for five dollar donations.

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