It’s been a busy season for the folks operating the city’s extreme weather shelter, and the winter isn’t even over.
With the forecast calling for more frigid temperatures until the weekend, the number of homeless people using the extreme weather shelter in Burnaby is sure to increase.
As of Monday, the shelter has been open for 33 nights for a total of 358 stays for the season.
In comparison, the shelter, which is run by the Lookout Society and located at Westminster Bible Chapel at 7540 Sixth St., was open 33 nights for the entire 2015/16 season, with a total of 191 stays. The organization expects to have at least double the number of stays compared to last year.
“As the only emergency shelter in Burnaby, we’re glad to give these folks a warm, safe place to stay during this extremely cold winter season,” said Shayne Williams, the executive director for Lookout Society, in an email to the NOW. “Last year we were open for 33 nights in the entire winter season, and we’ve already reached that number of nights as of yesterday (Jan. 8). We’re witnessing an especially harsh and difficult winter for the homeless in Burnaby – it’s time to move forward and look for a more permanent solution to help these people.”
Burnaby is one of the only Metro Vancouver municipalities without a permanent homeless shelter.
While critics have called on the city to act, Mayor Derek Corrigan has repeatedly said he doesn’t want a permanent homeless shelter in the city, a stance he repeated in December.
Meanwhile, city crews continue to clear snow and maintain roads around Burnaby. Brian Carter, the city’s manager of public works operations, explained crews spent the weekend clearing the busiest bus stops, and the parking around the hospital.
“It’s going to take a lot to melt some of the piles out there,” he said.
Last week, the city also had inspectors out making sure commercial and multi-family properties were clearing their snow.
The city had handed out 365 warnings and issued four fines as of Friday.
Carter also noted crews are still on standby in case another blast of snow hits town, though next week the forecast is for warm and rainy weather.
And when Old Man Winter draws his last breath, whenever that is, the city’s work isn’t done.
Carter said he expects the cleaning up at the end of the winter season to be a pretty big job.
“The events have been pretty mild in the past years since 2008/09, so there’s going to be quite a cleanup,” he said.
Carter said the city patches up potholes on a priority basis right now and won’t be permanently filling them in with hot asphalt until the weather warms.
Crews will also have to sweep the roads from all the sand and gravel laid down during the icy months.
“We don’t stop, we go from one thing to the next, which is the full deployment of all those resources,” he said.
