Youth homelessness appears to not be getting any worse but not much better in Kamloops.

According to a count done by A Way Home Kamloops, there 136 youth who were homeless at some point last year – compared to 129 in 2016. Of those, 56 youth were “visibly homeless,” 30 were “hidden homeless,” couch surfing or having unstable housing, while 50 others were not homeless at the time but had been homeless at some point in 2018.

A Way Home Kamloops committee chair Danielle Kreutzer says the society surveyed close to 1,100 people between the ages of 13 and 24 to get that total.

“One of the most significant findings that we saw from the survey, there was a substantial over-representation of Indigenous youth experiencing or who have experienced homelessness within the past year; 55 per cent of homeless youth completing the survey self-identified as Indigenous,” Kreutzer says.

Executive director Katherine McParland says conditions can be bleak for homeless youth in the city.

“Our 2018 count identified 21 per cent of youth who shared they were engaging in sexual favours in order to have a place to stay. We also heard that 34 per cent of visibly homeless youth identified they were having to resort to illegal activity.”

At Kamloops city council’s meeting today, the society said it will be making several recommendations to the city for addressing youth homelessness, including creating more housing, spending on prevention and requesting financial support for homeless youth, as well as specific funding for Indigenous needs and for employment and education support.

The society will be releasing a 90-page report with full details on the youth homeless count tomorrow.