Vancouver city councillor concerned about cold weather shelter spaces

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The forecast calls for some frigid nights this week, which is troubling for anyone forced to survive outside.

It’s also concerning for Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang, who says homeless shelters are already strained and the city’s emergency HEAT shelters are expected to fill up fast.

“We’ve been anticipating the extreme cold and wet weather coming. We have 100 spaces opening up this week and 70 more spaces opening in the next few weeks,” he tells NEWS 1130. “But our current shelters around the city are already full. In fact, our main shelter at 201 Central is experiencing a large number of turn-aways.”

Jang says the number of temporary shelter spaces the city provides is limited by the number and condition of the buildings available to house them.

“We are working very hard with BC Housing to get at least as many spaces as last year but we are seeing more people on the street. Given the record number of turn-aways we are already experiencing, no matter how many we put out this year, I suspect it’s going to be not quite enough. I think some people are going to be out in the cold.”

He hopes provincially operated extreme weather shelters in the city are activated “sooner rather than later.”

“We start planning for these shelters in the spring and, of course, there are only so many old warehouses we can covert and so many old buildings we can reuse. Many of them are up for redevelopment, so our challenge is those buildings just aren’t available for us year-to-year.”

Despite the scramble, Jang says the city tries to ensure quality shelter spaces are available.

“We are not into ‘warehousing.’ We want to make sure people have a safe place to go — a place where they can feel safe and, more importantly, a space where they can get in touch with health care. We know that every year, a good number of them move off the streets into permanent housing.”

Environment Canada is calling for lows down to -6 by Friday, with Arctic outflow winds expected to make it feel bitterly cold overnight.

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