What a difference six months makes.
Before Oct. 20, 2018, Burnaby had the unofficial title of “most heartless city” in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley for its refusal to do much of anything to help homeless people.
Seriously, when I would tell people I had been hired by the NOW, 99 per cent of the reaction involved someone saying that the City of Burnaby hated homeless people.
Fair or not, that’s what Burnaby’s reputation has been as the homeless crisis overall has worsened. And by worsened, I mean the number of homeless people dying in B.C. has skyrocketed. A new report from the BC Coroners Service said that 175 homeless individuals died in the province in 2016, a 140-per-cent increase over the 73 who died in 2015.
Meanwhile, Burnaby has had only a few shelter beds available during certain months.
Then the civic election happened and new Mayor Mike Hurley turned things around.
He got city staff to scramble to put together four warming centres around the city as the weather turned frigid. They were basic and will be better next year with more planning, but the attempt sent the message that the city’s leadership wasn’t going to stand idly by. (A report is expected soon on the warming centres.)
The city is also working to establish its first year-round homeless shelter. It’s insane that the third-largest city in B.C. doesn’t already have one. But now the city will provide space in an existing city-owned building - the exact location has yet to be determined. The province will provide funding, while a third-party non-profit will be in charge of the day-to-day operations, Hurley said.
Those are two major steps forward. The third is a 52-unit modular supportive housing complex expected to be complete and occupied on Norland Avenue by mid-June.
That project was supported by the previous mayor, but it only came decades into his reign and during an election campaign that he seemed to know would be his toughest yet so it felt like a calculated move.
People have already started talking about Burnaby’s big turnaround when it comes to having a heart. I don’t hear snide remarks anymore.
Instead, those snide remarks are aimed at Maple Ridge Mayor Mike Morden, who is fighting the provincial government’s efforts to house the homeless, including a recently announced modular housing project that the province didn’t need city approval for. The city has been actively trying to shut down Anita Place, a large encampment of homeless people.
Morden then put the icing on a black-heart cake by saying that homeless people were “basically raping and pillaging” the community.
That’s about the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard a mayor utter in 30 years of journalism. It’s so awful and it made me ashamed of my former home. I lived and worked in Maple Ridge for more than 20 years. I raised my daughter there. There are some really amazing and caring people in the Ridge. Morden’s comments (he has since backtracked on them) reflect a disturbing group of people who are fighting any efforts to house the homeless.
This isn’t new.
For several years, going back to when the BC Liberals were in power, BC Housing has offered up millions of dollars for a variety of projects, including retrofitting a motel. Those projects have all been fought by folks (including the two BC Liberal MLAs at the time) who seem to think that if government just does nothing, then the homeless in Maple Ridge will just pick up and leave. And just like in Burnaby, we know this doesn’t happen.
Now when intolerance towards the homeless comes up in conversation, people talk about Maple Ridge and its mayor.
Burnaby should send a thank you card to Morden for taking the heat off of them.
You can follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
