Mayor Derek Corrigan said he doesn’t want a homeless shelter in Burnaby, but he would welcome a transitional housing facility with proper supports for mental health and addictions if the province was willing to fund it.
The NOW asked Corrigan point blank if there would ever be a homeless shelter in Burnaby while he was mayor, to which Corrigan replied: “I don’t want homeless shelters, I want permanent housing.”
“If we’re going to have a facility it has to be a true transition facility that has treatment and support, not a place where people go in overnight and get pushed out the next morning,” he said.
Burnaby is one of the few municipalities that does not have a year-round permanent homeless shelter. Corrigan has long maintained that housing is a provincial and federal responsibility, yet Burnaby recently contributed $1 million to Derby Manor, a new housing project for seniors.
Housing Minister Rich Coleman recently told the NOW there’s money “on the table” for a homeless shelter in Burnaby, but the province needs a “willing partner.” Corrigan refuted that assertion, claiming Coleman “has only a brief acquaintanceship with the truth.”
Corrigan also said the provincial and federal government’s failure to build new housing means there’s nothing for people in homeless shelters to transition to.
“There’s no place to go. That’s the reality,” he said. “I find it very frustrating, but I’m not in charge of social services.”
The closest Burnaby’s been to having some kind of homeless shelter in recent years was the Portland Hotel Society’s proposal to turn the 401 Motor Inn on Boundary Road into a housing project. The plan was to offer residents on-site counselling, but the project fell through because B.C. Housing wouldn’t fund it.
The NOW put a media request in to B.C. Housing on Friday, and we’re still waiting for a response.
Corrigan attributed the project’s failure to the scandal that mired the Portland Hotel Society.
“The Portland Hotel Society went sideways. They were under investigation. They weren’t the ones that were going to be doing any projects,” he said.
The NOW also put a call into the society for comment but did not get a response.
Mark Townsend, the Portland Hotel Society’s executive director at the time, said the real reason the project never went through is because Corrigan doesn’t care about the issue.
“The scandal thing is a red herring; it didn’t even exist at the time,” Townsend said. “It was very, very frustrating and very, very heartbreaking that Burnaby was doing nothing and had its head in the sand. … It’s going to be over this guy’s dead body that shelter is going to happen.”
The truth is you’ve got to have the city onside, and the provincial government is reluctant to go against cities’ wishes, Townsend explained.
“They’re not going to override cities, but I think in this case they should,” Townsend said. “It’s just wrong and it’s immoral. You can’t have a city that doesn’t deal with its homeless problem. … Those are your people, and you need to deal with it.”
Meanwhile, the Burnaby Task Force on Homelessness hosted its annual Outreach Christmas for the homeless on Dec. 10. An estimated 276 people came out for the event, which features a pancake breakfast, a turkey lunch, activities, clothing and support.
