It's sad news when it comes to the less fortunate around the province and it's also sobering news when it comes to Prince George.
In numbers released by the Coroners Service, homeless deaths in British Columbia during 2016 jumped with a 140 per cent increase compared to 2015, where there were 73 compared to 175 in 2016.
Also released in the statistics were 85 per cent of the homeless deaths from 2017 to 2016, 85 per cent of which were men.
Prince George saw the following numbers for homeless deaths from 2007 to 2016:
- 2007 - 1
- 2008 - 2
- 2009 - 1
- 2010 - 1
- 2011 - 0
- 2012 - 1
- 2013 - 1
- 2014 - 3
- 2015 - 2
- 2016 - 5
That's a total of 17 from 2007 to 2016.
For the Northern Health Authority, numbers have seen more a see-saw rate over the same time period.
- 2007 - 2
- 2008 - 3
- 2009 - 3
- 2010 - 3
- 2011 - 0
- 2012 - 3
- 2013 - 3
- 2014 - 7
- 2015 - 4
- 2016 - 8
The total is 36 deaths over nine years.
In B.C. from 2007 to 2016, there were 55 deaths of homeless individuals on average while 54 per cent of deaths were aged 40-59.
The Coroner says 56 per cent of those deaths were accidental, 23 per cent were classified as natural and 11 per cent were a result of suicide.
Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health together accounted for 59 per cent of homeless deaths from 2007 to 2016.
Just in 2016 alone, Vancouver accounted for the most deaths with 43, followed by Surrey with 17, Victoria with 16, and Kelowna with 10.
