Resolution seeks to accelerate and expand on previous council commitments for scalable, small-footprint shelters to deliver faster, more effective supports for unhoused Vancouverites.

VANCOUVER, B.C., APRIL 30, 2026 - Vancouver Green City Councillor and mayoral candidate Pete Fry is calling for the City to scale up small, rapidly deployable shelter systems, consistent with earlier commitments and as part of a response to rising homelessness in Vancouver ahead of the FIFA World Cup.

Fry’s resolution calls on the City to identify and advance a scalable framework for small footprint, rapid deployment shelter sites, citing successful local deployments from Seattle to Kelowna, and Duncan to New Westminster. 

Prolonged unsheltered homelessness is associated with increasingly complex and compounded health and wellness conditions, which significantly increase both human harm and public system costs, and informs the call for the city’s meaningful intervention

Fry’s May 6 resolution before City Council highlights a 12% increase in Vancouver’s 2025 Homeless Count, which found 2,715 people experiencing homelessness – the highest number recorded – with approximately 40% living unsheltered.

The Homeless Count illustrated that income and housing affordability are leading drivers of homelessness for Vancouverites, yet despite previous Council direction, emergency shelter capacity has not kept pace with need, and many people living outside do not feel safe or well-served by traditional shelter models.

“People sleeping outside today need solutions measured in weeks and months, not years,” said Fry. “We can scale up options on underutilized city land that are faster to deliver, more flexible, and actually meet people where they’re at.”

The motion directs City staff to:

• Develop a scalable framework for small, rapid-deployment shelter sites
• Prioritize standardized and prefabricated units to speed up delivery
• Use shared facilities to reduce costs and enable faster rollout
• Identify underused or temporary sites suitable for immediate deployment

The proposal builds on successful models in B.C. and the Pacific Northwest, where small-scale rapid deployment shelters have helped stabilize people and improve transitions to permanent housing.

Fry highlights newly announced federal funding for unsheltered homelessness, and calls for coordination with provincial programs to accelerate delivery, while drawing lessons from cities like Seattle that are expanding similar shelter systems ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

“We know that a door that locks, and a roof over your head can be part of a stabilizing intervention and a real and meaningful path out of homelessness”, Fry added. “As government, we have a moral and fiscal responsibility to use approaches that we know can work, and meet people where they are at.”