According to a city-commissioned report, on a single day in 2010, Vancouver was home to roughly 1,715 homeless people. As the report indicates, the city’s homeless population rose 9% between 2008 and 2010, growing annually at roughly twice the rate as the overall population. However, for the same period, the number of homeless people recorded in shelters had risen by nearly 25%, an increase attributed to the expansion of shelter capacity. While the report is by no means a definitive count (a number of “refusals” are indicated), it indicates that 25% of the total are “unsheltered homeless” – people who sleep in places “not fit for human habitation”.