Image: Chilliwack Cleanup / A homeless camp near the Vedder Bridge and The Eddy, just off Sweltzer Creek Road in Chilliwack.

By Alyssa Conti

HOUSING NEEDS

Chilliwack calls to share shelter bed responsibility across B.C. municipalities

Sep 23, 2025 | 10:10 AM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack officials are looking to share the load of sheltering the unhoused as local resources begin to buckle under the strain.

The City’s resolution at this year’s Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) conference is to “develop and implement a comprehensive, regionally equitable strategy for the distribution of emergency shelter beds, […] relative to their population and local service capacity”.

Metro Vancouver’s 2023 Housing Data Book shows that Chilliwack has marginally better social supports compared to other B.C. locales, with 2.69 shelter beds per 1,000 people, compared to a range of zero to 1.61 beds in all Lower Mainland communities except Vancouver.

With shorter waitlists for social housing and waived fees for shelters, the city has been put in a position to take in the unhoused from other communities.

“We have already learned of several instances where hospitals in the Fraser Health and Coastal Health regions have discharged individuals with complex care needs and sent them via taxi to shelters in Chilliwack, despite being told there are no beds available,” said Mayor Ken Popove in a statement in January.

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“Chilliwack shelters are full, and we are focused on taking care of the vulnerable members of our community.”

Data from the City’s Interim Housing Needs Report in 2024 shows that housing needs for people without homes are projected to reach 327.49 beds in five years, to a total of 7,933 units needed to accommodate the city’s growing population overall.

“We are a small community that has done the best we can to support service providers and the needs of those within our community. We need the province to step up and take care of housing and health care equitably to ensure shelters and services aren’t concentrated in just one or two communities,” Popove added.

Abbotsford also faces growing housing demands over the next five years, with 536.89 units needed for people experiencing homelessness and 11,066 units required across the city overall, according to the City’s 2024 Housing Needs Report.

The 2025 UBCM conference is set to run until Friday, September 26.