Myth: Most of the homeless people in Victoria are not from the city. Providing more services to homeless people will only draw more of them here.

Reality: Homelessness is a homegrown issue. About three-quarters of people in the CRD experiencing homelessness or unstable housing are from this city. About 16 percent are from elsewhere in the province (mainly Duncan and Vancouver) and only a small percentage are from outside the province.

When it comes to homelessness, most of us are pretty sheltered from the grim reality. We are all familiar with the faces of the homeless in the downtown area: the fellow pushing a shopping cart full of his belongings, a group of youth hanging out on the sidewalk, or the woman sitting in a doorway with a cardboard sign. Yet few of us realize that the person we see on the street represents only a fraction of the homeless population in the Capital Regional District.