Vancouver’s homeless in for a cold couple of days
Posted November 18, 2011 10:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver has issued a cold weather alert for the city’s homeless, but is there enough space for everyone to go inside?
News1130 is speaking with the Greater Vancouver Shelter Strategy about its extreme weather response sites across nine sub-regions.
“Already we have confirmed sites in Vancouver, Surrey, Delta, White Rock…as well as Richmond and several others,” says James Pratt with the GVSS. But he notes it’s up to each municipality to determine if a crisis response is needed.
“In the last few years, we have had zero incidents of people being turned away from these extreme weather sites due to there being no space at the end. We just won’t turn people away under weather conditions like this… and that’s the whole reason for the program.”
There are spaces for up to 635 people; in addition, Keela Keeping with the Union Gospel Mission says regular shelters like theirs are near capacity. “Last night we were basically at capacity, but what we did in relation to the cold weather strategy was open up our corner-stone-drop-in and we made room for 20 extra beds.”
“It’s definitely going to be a pretty miserable couple of days,” says Irene Jaakson with the Vancouver Extreme Winter Response Program. “The alert means people who are homeless are strongly encouraged to come inside. The conditions are too severe to be sleeping outside; they’re quite dangerous.”
The province has been criticized for not funding HEAT shelters in the city this year, but the housing minister will not return our phone calls.
