Burnaby’s extreme weather shelter experienced more than double the number of stays during the recent cold snap when compared to last winter.
Shayne Williams, executive director of Lookout Society, told the NOW the shelter has been open for 48 nights so far – from Oct. 13 to 16 because of a windstorm, and from Dec. 3 to Jan. 15 because of the heavy snowfall. During that time, the society recorded 476 stays. The previous year, the shelter was open for 33 nights and had a total of 191 stays.
“To be open from Dec. 3 to Jan. 15 is incredibly challenging on a program that’s meant to be kind of a response,” said Williams.
Burnaby is one of the only Metro Vancouver municipalities without a permanent homeless shelter. When freezing temperatures set in, the city’s extreme weather shelter opens. It’s run by Lookout and funded by B.C. Housing.
Located at Westminster Bible Chapel, 7540 6th St., the space provides people an opportunity to get a meal and out of the cold. There are 30 beds on site, and according to Williams, no one has been turned away this season.
“It’s certainly no substitution for a purpose-built shelter with outreach and transitional housing, and the ability to navigate people off the streets,” he said. “Emergency weather response can’t replace something like that. Unfortunately in Burnaby, that’s the current situation.”
The homeless population in Burnaby is forced to go elsewhere, often putting strain on neighbouring cities like Surrey and New Westminster, Williams added.
“What happens is people get displaced from their social network; they get displaced from their doctors; they get displaced from the community they want to live in and it makes it so much more difficult for folks to get well,” he said.
The debate about a homeless shelter in Burnaby is nothing new. Mayor Derek Corrigan has repeatedly said he doesn’t want one in the city.
In an interview with the NOW in December 2016, Corrigan said “that never works, and never worked before.”
“When you provide an overnight shelter and throw them back out on the streets, you don’t do anything except continue a dysfunctional situation,” he said at the time, adding the provincial government needs to address the issues that are keeping people on the streets.
Corrigan said he would support any solution that allows people to transition out of homelessness into permanent housing and treatment, but operating such a facility is not within the city’s mandate and couldn’t be done without significantly changing the bureaucracy at city hall and costing tax payers a lot of money.
According to the last homeless count in 2014 (they are done every three years), Burnaby’s homeless population was 58 people, down from 78 in 2011. The next count is scheduled for March 7 and 8.
Meanwhile, a new Metro Vancouver regional task force on homelessness was struck last November. It includes six mayors and seven chief administrative officers, including Burnaby, and will seek advice from B.C. Housing, social service agencies and the like. The idea is to data share and come up with a list of recommendations for the province to implement this spring.
