Chilliwack City Council. (Image Credit: Image: City of Chilliwack )

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Unfair burdens cited

Chilliwack City Council urges B.C. govt. to better address homelessness, mental health issues

Jan 28, 2026 | 10:50 AM

CHILLIWACK – Chilliwack City Council members are calling on senior levels of government to better address how homelessness, mental health and addiction are dealt with in B.C., based on the $5.2 million it spent in 2025 for costs related to street people.

According to a statement issued Tuesday (Jan. 27), Chilliwack councillors reviewed this ongoing challenge at its last meeting on Tuesday, January 20, taking note of Chilliwack’s massive increase in the number of street people in just one year. Chilliwack’s unhoused population grew from 642 people in 2024 to 738 in 2025, according to the latest figures from the most recent Point-in-Time homelessness count.

“Even though the responsibility for providing housing and health services is not within municipal jurisdiction, municipalities across BC continue to pay the price and manage the strain of a system that is failing,” the city said, citing the $5.2 million figure. “That number is anticipated to continue to grow each year if senior levels of government do not make any changes.”

The city says the Chilliwack Community Safety Plan recognizes that homelessness, mental illness, and addictions, which affect community safety and public perceptions of safety, cannot be adjudicated through policing and enforcement alone.

“It is necessary to address the root causes of these issues, increase upstream prevention, and address challenges within the justice system,” the city said. “The City of Chilliwack has been advocating for these changes for a decade, yet hasn’t seen any improvement. For example, despite ongoing advocacy for access to detox and treatment beds, wait lists currently range from six weeks to over three months. People coming out of treatment without access to stable housing, are at risk for relapse, especially when they are discharged to shelters where supervised consumption is supported.”

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Mayor Ken Popove said he’s seen no progress on the city’s continued push for more detox beds in the Fraser Health region.

“The City’s 2016 Homelessness Action Plan clearly prioritized the need for detox and recovery beds in Chilliwack, and we have made that need loud and clear to the province,” Mayor Ken Popove said. “Nearly a decade later, we still do not have any detox beds in Chilliwack.”

Chilliwack City Council has been lobbying for Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team for years, defined as groups of trained professionals that provide enhanced, wrap-around care and treatment to people in the community who struggle with complex mental health. There are 34 ACT teams in the province, and only seven of those teams are within the Fraser Health region, including some neighbouring cities.

“Despite continued advocacy, the provincial government continues to reject Chilliwack’s requests for an ACT team, claiming that other services in the community exist. Unfortunately, those services are not comparable, and an ACT team is urgently needed,” the city said.

During the meeting on January 20, councillors also raised concerns about the disproportionate number of shelter beds in Chilliwack compared to other communities and called on the province to develop and implement a comprehensive, regionally equitable strategy to distribute emergency shelter beds. Ideally, the city says, long-term housing with wrap-around supports should replace emergency shelter beds. 

“Chilliwack is doing as much as we can to address homelessness, but we do not have the capacity for any new people to come here who are experiencing homelessness, and we need the province to fix their broken system,” said Mayor Popove. “Chilliwack is doing as much as we can to address homelessness, but we do not have the capacity for any new people to come here who are experiencing homelessness. We need the province to fix their broken system.”

The city says a formal letter will be sent to the provincial government to persuade them to rethink how they address mental health, addiction, and homelessness in B.C.