Unhappy neighbours
Yaletown homeless shelter stirs anger
Angry homeowners in Yaletown are accusing the City of Vancouver of sneakily building an emergency homeless shelter that they fear will turn their street and local park into a drug-ridden danger zone.
The temporary winter shelter in Seymour Street will open in early December and be shut down no later than May 30, the city promises, housing up to 40 homeless who would be at risk of dying in the cold.
The city’s so-called “HEAT” shelter program has been in effect since 2008. The shelters are run with “lowbarrier” rules so that street dwellers with drug-addiction and mentalhealth problems can come inside bringing pets, belongings in shopping carts and friends.
Drug use is tolerated, but generally residents are asked to take drugs outside the shelters.
On Seymour Street, a number of unhappy neighbours such as Sharon Promislow say the city has been “duplicitous” in preparing the new shelter space without consulting hundreds of nearby condo owners.
Promislow says her neighbourhood already hosts about 12 social-service agencies within blocks, most of which are focused on guiding clients away from drug use and crime.
That won’t be the case with the new HEAT shelter, residents say.
“We’re worried this will be the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Promislow said Saturday. “The young families are so concerned that children won’t be able to scamper around anymore. There will be needles in the grass at the park.”
A statement attributed to the strata council of the Eden, at 1225 Richards Street, says: “Shockingly, the project is being built in secret with no public notification of location [in order] to avoid outcry. The gross overstepping of this placement [may lead] to injunction and provokes further legal action on our part, to protect our street and home.”
But Vision Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang and the city’s advocate for the homeless, Judy Graves, say there was nothing secretive in the city’s process. Jang said the city has learned important lessons on how to mitigate winter-shelter impact since a group of False Creek condo residents rose up against shelters in 2009.
According to Jang, the city only learned it would receive funding for the new shelter weeks ago, so there was no time to consult neighbours in the rush to make the location operational before cold weather strikes.
“There was nothing underhanded,” Jang said.