City takes heat over homeless shelter
Neighbours say lives disrupted by unruly behaviour and discarded hypodermic needles
Neighbours who live near a Seymour Street homeless shelter say their lives are being disrupted by unruly behaviour and hypodermic needles that threaten young families.
Upscale condos share the street with the HEAT shelter, its entrance in the 1200-block Seymour Street dominated by a sign from its last incarnation, the Japanese Auto Centre.
“It’s a large warehouse with 40 mats on the floor,” said Leslie Remund of Raincity Housing, which operates Vancouver’s four seasonal heat shelters that keep the homeless off the streets during the winter. “If there are problems, we encourage anyone to phone us direct — we all want a safer community.”
Next-door neighbour Sharon Promislow has lived on Seymour for 10 years, and said the neighbourhood wasn’t consulted before the homeless moved in.
“This is the wrong place for a homeless shelter,” she said. “It’s right next door to homes with street-level entrances. It’s surrounded by three highrise developments.
“There are guidelines for where to put shelters — this one fails almost every condition.”
Coun. George Affleck lives nearby, and said he didn’t see the shelter coming.
“As a neighbour, I wasn’t aware of the shelter, and as a councillor I wasn’t aware of the shelter,” said Affleck, who isn’t part of the ruling Vision Vancouver municipal government. “We’ve had reports of needles where children come to play.
“These shelters work — there’s no question about that. But this is not the right place for a shelter.”
Coun. Kerry Jang said the same small group continues to gripe publicly about the shelter.
“This same group encouraged people to phone the police if people were smoking on the street or hanging out on the street — it’s a public street,” said Jang. “We’ve had needle sweeps in that area for 20 years.”
Jang said that after the shelter closes in May, the city will consider other options — but doesn’t rule out reopening a shelter in the same spot next winter.
Outside the shelter, homeless young men say the problems don’t stem from the 40 residents — it’s homeless who don’t actually live there that are creating havoc.
“THERE IS A NO GUEST POLICY IN EFFECT,” reads a sign outside the shelter intended to crack down on the problem.
“Those are the guys who don’t live here who are causing problems,” said one of the homeless, smoking cigarettes outside the shelter.
“We are harmless. Other people come here and give us a bad reputation.”