On November 30th, Surrey Homelessness & Housing Society recognizes and celebrates Giving Tuesday. This is a day to show your support for local organizations who put your generous donations towards providing essential services to Surrey’s most vulnerable populations.
In 2020, 644 individuals in Surrey were visibly homeless, with an additional 2254 estimated to be hidden homeless (this means they may be staying temporarily with others, living in their cars or not accessing services). Homelessness continues to be a growing issue in our community, with the number of individuals identified as homeless rising by 74% from 2005 to 2020. Included in this statistic is an overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples, who are 13.2 times more likely to experience homelessness, and women and children facing violence who are at risk of homelessness or continued violence. There is an urgent need for more affordable and supportive housing options in Surrey – though more shelters and housing have opened in response, significant gaps still remain for preventing homelessness, and more work needs to be done to create long-term housing with supports that keep people housed.
Giving Tuesday is an encouraging reminder to give back and do good. During this special time of generosity, we ask you to consider supporting Housing for Hope for individuals and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness in our community. Together, we can make a difference and support people through the evolving impacts of the pandemic and ongoing extreme weather events that continue to intensify the existing housing challenges faced by people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. When you give to Surrey Homelessness & Housing Society, you can be assured that your donation will have the greatest possible impact on homelessness in our community, supporting the most promising programs serving those most vulnerable, and creating and maintaining housing stock.
This Giving Tuesday, we would like to celebrate the tremendous work of our grantees in 2020 and 2021. We would like to thank our community partners for their innovative projects and impactful initiatives that make a difference in the lives of people experiencing homelessness in our city.
To see the impact your donation can make and learn more about the projects we support, please watch our video (above) and read our 2020 Annual Report here.