A federal project that counts the number of homeless people in communities across the country is coming to Kelowna.
The Point-in-Time count will be completed over the course of one day before the end of April, and will be used to shape funding and programming decisions made in Ottawa, at the Ministry of Social Development.
Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran says on a local level, it's not unhelpful, but it's not the gospel.
"The more data we have, the better. The Point-in-Time count though, is often misleading, depending on what time of year it is. I don't think it gives us an accurate assessment of how many people truly are in our community, that are vulnerable or need help. And I think we know now that the number is actually much larger."
He says that because we're still months away from the summer rise in population, the number won't be as complete as it could be.
"It's all well and good, but I think that it certainly has its flaws," he said.
"But the more data we have can certainly be useful. We know it's one day of the year - we know the problem is much larger than that."
Kelowna's last count was done on February 24, 2016, and counted 233 homeless people in the city.
The report also found men outnumbered women by a 70-30 margin, and that nearly 80% were between the age of 25 and 64.
It also accounted for 273 people living in temporary supportive housing, who had previously been on the streets.
Basran says locally, the study will back up the ongoing work of the Journey Home task force.
"It just adds data but it's not going to change what we're doing, because it's pretty far reaching, this Journey Home (strategy)," he said.
"It's all-encompassing, and it's a lot of good work. So if anything else, it'll just reiterate why we're doing what we're doing, and that a lot more needs to be done."
Kelowna is one of 32 municipalities Canada-wide, that's being included in the study.