As word spreads that local extreme weather shelters are opening this month, Burnaby and New Westminster homeless people are starting to filter in from the cold.
"There's been a total of 40 people in New Westminster in the six days we've been operating so far, from Dec. 8 to (Dec. 20)," said Dave Suttie from Lookout Emergency Aid Society, which runs extreme weather shelters in Burnaby and New Westminster.
Numbers in Burnaby have been lower: only eight people showed up in December, during the five nights the shelter was open.
"Burnaby is mixed because its temperatures are a bit higher," Suttie said. "New Westminster, we've been running straight through because it's been zero or sub zero."
The shelters are not open all the time, Suttie explained.
"There's gaps in between because we have to make the assessment every day as to what the call's going to be. There are a variety of factors we take into consideration. It's not just zero or subzero temperatures, it's extreme weather," he said.
According to Suttie, extreme weather is when it's wet and cold enough to be a threat to human health. Temperatures hitting zero is a factor, but that doesn't pose a threat if it's dry, he said. The call to open the shelters is on a day-to-day basis, he added.
"It's not something where we are going to block-book the whole thing, because if there's a fluctuation in temperature and things warm up or dry up, and we've already pre-called a block of days, we have to pay for the staffing," he said.
To get the message out to homeless people that the shelters are open, Lookout issues alerts, where emails and phone calls go out to police and a variety of agencies that have contact with homeless people.
No one is turned away from the extreme weather shelters.
"If people are mentally ill and have pets and shopping carts, if they are at risk of harm, we will take them. We don't turn people away," he said. "If people's health and safety are at risk. We take them. The rest doesn't matter."
