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Victoria’s share of the region’s shelter and homeless housing

Area: City of Victoria March 31, 2025

86% of the region’s units

In a yearSteady+0.1 pt, +0.1%, within ±5%

No target expected. This is a context measure. A share shown for context beside the City’s share of the region’s residents. Targets and comparisons

Up 0.1 points in a year.

Source: BC Housing and BC Stats (calculated here). We read it on Nov 11, 2026.

Check this numberOpen the first source (agency site)

Over time

Share of the Capital Region (%)

2025 By year

  • Shelter and homeless housing units 86.4%
  • Residents 22.4%
Line chart of 2 lines, 2 periods from 2024 to 2025. Shelter and homeless housing units: starts at 86.3% (2024), ends at 86.4% (2025); highest 86.4% (2025), lowest 86.3% (2024). Residents: starts at 22.4% (2024), ends at 22.4% (2025); highest 22.4% (2024), lowest 22.4% (2024). Short ticks on the top edge mark general election days: Provincial election: Oct 19, 2024; Federal election: Apr 28, 2025. Every value is in the table.050100%20252024Provincial election, Oct 19, 2024Federal election, Apr 28, 20252024: Shelter and homeless housing units: 86.3%; Residents: 22.4%2025: Shelter and homeless housing units: 86.4%; Residents: 22.4%
Line chart of 2 lines, 2 periods from 2024 to 2025. Shelter and homeless housing units: starts at 86.3% (2024), ends at 86.4% (2025); highest 86.4% (2025), lowest 86.3% (2024). Residents: starts at 22.4% (2024), ends at 22.4% (2025); highest 22.4% (2024), lowest 22.4% (2024). Short ticks on the top edge mark general election days: Provincial election: Oct 19, 2024; Federal election: Apr 28, 2025. Every value is in the table.050100%20252024Provincial election, Oct 19, 2024Federal election, Apr 28, 20252024: Shelter and homeless housing units: 86.3%; Residents: 22.4%2025: Shelter and homeless housing units: 86.4%; Residents: 22.4%
Line chart of 2 lines, 2 periods from 2024 to 2025. Shelter and homeless housing units: starts at 86.3% (2024), ends at 86.4% (2025); highest 86.4% (2025), lowest 86.3% (2024). Residents: starts at 22.4% (2024), ends at 22.4% (2025); highest 22.4% (2024), lowest 22.4% (2024). Short ticks on the top edge mark general election days: Provincial election: Oct 19, 2024; Federal election: Apr 28, 2025. Every value is in the table.050100%20252024Provincial election, Oct 19, 2024Federal election, Apr 28, 2025Shelter andhomelesshousing units86.4Residents 22.42024: Shelter and homeless housing units: 86.3%; Residents: 22.4%2025: Shelter and homeless housing units: 86.4%; Residents: 22.4%
Line chart of 2 lines, 2 periods from 2024 to 2025. Shelter and homeless housing units: starts at 86.3% (2024), ends at 86.4% (2025); highest 86.4% (2025), lowest 86.3% (2024). Residents: starts at 22.4% (2024), ends at 22.4% (2025); highest 22.4% (2024), lowest 22.4% (2024). Short ticks on the top edge mark general election days: Provincial election: Oct 19, 2024; Federal election: Apr 28, 2025. Every value is in the table.050100%20252024Provincial election, Oct 19, 2024Federal election, Apr 28, 2025Shelter and homelesshousing units 86.4Residents 22.42024: Shelter and homeless housing units: 86.3%; Residents: 22.4%2025: Shelter and homeless housing units: 86.4%; Residents: 22.4%

Tap or drag on the chart to read any year.

P provincial election: Oct 19, 2024F federal election: Apr 28, 2025

About these ticks

Targets and comparisons

Context measure: no target expected

  • Context measure: no target expected. A share shown for context beside the City’s share of the region’s residents.

How targets are chosen

Show the numbers as a table
Share of the Capital Region (%) (newest first)
PeriodShelter and homeless housing unitsResidents
202586.422.4
202486.322.4

How it compares

BC Housing and BC Stats, 2025, %. Comparisons are not goals.

Shelter and homeless housing units86%Residents22%

Who decides

Province of B.C. Runs housing programs through BC Housing (the British Columbia Housing Management Commission). Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing Act, s. 5

Show the 3 other bodies and the laws
Who decides what: Victoria’s share of the region’s shelter and homeless housing
BodyWhat it decidesLaw or bylaw
Province of B.C.Runs housing programs through BC Housing (the British Columbia Housing Management Commission).Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing Act, s. 5
Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing Act, s. 10
Government of Canada and ParliamentMust keep a National Housing Strategy with national goals on housing and homelessness.National Housing Strategy Act, s. 5
Municipal councils of Greater Victoria (13)Each council decides land use in its own area and makes bylaws for parks and other public places.Local Government Act, s. 479
Community Charter, s. 8 (3)
Capital Regional District BoardRuns a regional housing trust fund that helps fund affordable housing.CRD Bylaw No. 3266, Regional Housing Trust Fund Service Establishment Bylaw

Councils: last general local election October 17, 2026; next on October 19, 2030, the third Saturday of October set by the Local Government Act, s. 52. Province: last general election October 19, 2024; next set for October 21, 2028 unless called earlier (Constitution Act, s. 23). Canada: last general election April 28, 2025; next set for October 15, 2029 unless called earlier (Canada Elections Act, s. 56.1).

Each row says what a body decides and links to the law, order or bylaw that gives it that role. It does not say who caused a change: markets, households and other governments also move these numbers. Who decides what, for every measure · How we choose

What this number does not show

  • Counts units administered by BC Housing in its “Emergency Shelter and Housing for the Homeless” group (supportive housing, homeless rent supplements and shelters) on March 31. Shelters and housing funded by others are not included.
One more limit
  • Rent supplements are counted where the program is administered, which may not be where the person lives.

Not measured yet in homelessness and drugs: hidden homelessness, overdose calls to paramedics in Greater Victoria. See all 17 gaps

In plain words

Of the shelter spaces, supportive housing and homeless rent supplements administered by BC Housing in the Capital Region, the share located in the City of Victoria, next to the City’s share of the region’s residents.

How we decide “Steady”

How many shelter and supportive units a city should host is a policy choice. The change is 0.1% of the earlier value, below the 5% threshold.

At March 31, 2025, 2,039 of the 2,359 units in BC Housing's “Emergency Shelter and Housing for the Homeless” group in the Capital Region were in the City of Victoria (86.4%). The City had 103,888 of the region's 464,082 residents in 2025 (22.4%), so its share of these units is 3.9 times its share of population.

Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series. The rule.

All notes on this number

Why it matters. Where services are located affects both the people who use them and the neighbourhoods around them. This shows the distribution without judging it.

  • Counts units administered by BC Housing in its “Emergency Shelter and Housing for the Homeless” group (supportive housing, homeless rent supplements and shelters) on March 31. Shelters and housing funded by others are not included.
  • Rent supplements are counted where the program is administered, which may not be where the person lives.
  • BC Housing suppresses some small counts in its tables (shown as XX); the regional total is BC Housing's own and includes them.
  • The BC Data Catalogue lists this dataset as “Access Only”, which is not an open licence. It is shown here as public data with attribution.
  • The earlier figure (March 31, 2024) is from the previous edition of the same file. The catalogue replaced that edition in the same dataset, so it is read from the Internet Archive’s copy of the file’s original address, checked against the archive’s fingerprint.

Which places

Area: City of Victoria

The City of Victoria municipality only, all neighbourhoods.

Included

  • All City of Victoria neighbourhoods, including Downtown, James Bay, Fairfield, Fernwood, Oaklands, Hillside/Quadra, North Park, Burnside, Victoria West, Rockland, Jubilee and Gonzales

Not included

  • Saanich, Oak Bay, Esquimalt, Langford and every other municipality in the region

Official definition

Shown for comparison

  • Comparison area: Capital Region The Capital Regional District: 13 municipalities and 3 electoral areas, including the Southern Gulf Islands and Salt Spring Island.

How the agency describes it: City of Victoria compared with the Capital Regional District.

How we calculated it

Calculated herePublic, not open-licensed This figure is not published by an agency as is. It is calculated here, by script, from the public data listed below. It belongs with People without a home during the year.

Formula

Share of units = City units ÷ all Capital Region units. Share of population = City population ÷ Capital Region population (BC Stats, July 1).

With the latest numbers

  • Units: 2,039 ÷ 2,359 = 86.4%.
  • Population 2025: 103,888 ÷ 464,082 = 22.4%.
  • Ratio: 86.4 ÷ 22.4 = 3.9.
  • March 31, 2024: 1,902 ÷ 2,203 = 86.3%; population 2024: 22.4%.

Inputs

Keep in mind

  • Counts units administered by BC Housing in its “Emergency Shelter and Housing for the Homeless” group (supportive housing, homeless rent supplements and shelters) on March 31. Shelters and housing funded by others are not included.
  • Rent supplements are counted where the program is administered, which may not be where the person lives.
  • BC Housing suppresses some small counts in its tables (shown as XX); the regional total is BC Housing's own and includes them.
  • The BC Data Catalogue lists this dataset as “Access Only”, which is not an open licence. It is shown here as public data with attribution.
  • The earlier figure (March 31, 2024) is from the previous edition of the same file. The catalogue replaced that edition in the same dataset, so it is read from the Internet Archive’s copy of the file’s original address, checked against the archive’s fingerprint.

Retrieved Nov 11, 2026, 9:06 PM B.C. time. This page’s data and calculation (JSON).

Licence and credits

This figure is public but not under an open licence: the agency publishes it for anyone to read, and it is shown here with credit and a link to the agency’s terms. About licences.

Calculated here from public data; see “How we calculated it”.

Calculated here from
BC Housing (published by the B.C. Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs), BC Stats
Period
March 31, 2025
Updated
Annually (as of March 31)
Retrieved
Nov 11, 2026, 9:06 PM B.C. time

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