UGM volunteers help Fraser Valley homeless during major cold snap
Emergency mobile units deliver drinks, warm clothes, lunches to those in need
Bruce used to love winter camping back in Alberta when he was a young man half a century ago.
But this isn’t camping, and the 73-year-old would prefer to be inside four warm walls instead of living under a blue tarp in a small park by a major intersection in Abbotsford.
“With the help of some ladies, I’m off the ground,” Bruce said, rolling over to show a thin foam mattress he was lying on. “I’m off the ground, I have a sleeping bag on me, and I’m wearing three coats.”
It was –9 C on Tuesday, and there was a brisk wind. After just a couple of hours outside, neither a videographer nor a reporter could feel their fingertips inside their gloves.
Bruce? He puts on a brave face. He’s a tough guy, he says, so minus-9 is nothing compared to the 40-below it is up north. But, yes, his fingers, too, feel the cold’s bite.
“The biggest problem is my hands get extremely cold.”
He has the money to pay rent, he said, but even if the vacancy rate wasn’t at one per cent, he can’t leave his possessions to search for a place or they will get stolen.
Bruce has spent a month at the corner he’s on, and isn’t the only one living rough in Abbotsford and Mission during this cold spell.
There is a tent at an encampment known as The Hill over Highway 1 off Peardonville Road; a couple live under tarps in a gully next to where a new business park is being built; and dozens more are trying to cope in the frigid conditions.
The Union Gospel Mission has two emergency response vehicles on the streets, a new emergency mobile unit to service the Fraser Valley and one in Vancouver, delivering warm jackets, blankets, sleeping bags, mitts and toques, as well as hot chocolate and steaming noodle lunches.
“Between Abbotsford and Mission, there are about 100 people sleeping outdoors in the winter,” said Stephen Kastlison, a UGM outreach worker who delivers the cold-weather survival gear. “Tents, doorways, some sort of wood structure. There are emergency shelters that are open in times of extra precipitation and cold, but that meets the need of about half of the people who are sleeping outdoors in the winter.”
The list of things that can kill you when you’re homeless is long, UGM spokesman Jeremy Hunka said. When it’s so cold out, that list gets even longer: Candles lit for warmth inside a tent can burn it down, illness can quickly develop into pneumonia, and you can literally freeze to death.
“It’s so cold, it’s so brutal for those who are on the streets right now. ... They’re telling us they’re scared of dying in the snow or getting sick,” said Hunka. “They need to know people are here for them and that people care about them.”
A couple of women dropped by to visit Bruce on Monday, he said, bringing him warm clothes, company and conversation.
He likes playing chess. He likes to write and draw. If only he had somewhere warm to do that, Hunka said.
If only he had an apartment or a basement suite. If only someone would help him find one.
“I’m a born camper. I can live outside,” Bruce said. “But I’m 73 years old and I want to get inside.”