BC Housing to propose extending lease on temporary Maple Ridge homeless shelter

Yvan Charette says he’s been forced to call police about 100 times and hire security since a temporary homeless shelter opened last October on Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge right across the street from his business, The Haney Public House.

“We’ve seen the decay of our area…it has been extremely stressful,” he says, adding that the low-barrier facility “is attracting an element that is…not helpful.”

In late March, the temporary shelter’s life was extended until the end of June after community opposition forced the province to abandon its controversial plan to turn the local Quality Inn into a homeless shelter.

Now BC Housing wants the City of Maple Ridge to extend the lease on the temporary shelter for at least another nine months or until an interim housing solution is in place. That interim solution would house up to 40 people for approximately three years or until a permanent shelter and supportive housing development is completed. The province is still committed to providing $15 million to cover the capital and operating costs of a new permanent homeless shelter somewhere in Maple Ridge.

“The people that we’re seeing certainly on our streets here in Maple Ridge are people who have significant addiction and severe mental health issues and I think, you know, housing is only one part of solving that problem,” Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read says.

Read says the city has found housing for around 90 people who were living on the streets but ever since the now disbanded Cliff Avenue tent encampment sprung up in 2015, it’s been hard to control the homeless crisis in Maple Ridge.

“Unless there’s a real robust regional solution to dealing with homelessness that’s well supported by the provincial government I don’t think we’re going to stop the flow of people from housing onto the streets and from one city’s streets into another.”

Charette says he’s already seen a huge decrease in sales and any extension on the shelter’s lease would only make things worse. While he has compassion for the homeless and those facing addictions and mental health issues, he feels this is not the right way to tackle homelessness.

“Somebody’s got to have a better answer than allowing debauchery and drugs and deals and all of this stuff to go on,” he says.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Somebody's got to have a better answer than allowing debauchery and drugs and deals and all of this stuff to go on," he says.

BC Housing, the RCMP and Fraser Health will present their solutions to Maple Ridge city council at Monday night’s meeting, where a strong public turnout is expected.