Downtown Eastside groups issue urgent plea for homeless ahead of winter

As the cold, wet weather rolls into B.C.’s South Coast, a coalition of groups from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is calling for more safe and warm spaces for the homeless.

The Carnegie Housing Project held a press conference Thursday, warning that there are 3,100 people of no fixed address in the region, including 2,000 in the Downtown Eastside, but just 1,500 shelter beds.

The group, along with the Aboriginal Front Door Society, Overdose Prevention Society and Building Community Society, released nine urgent actions to address the crisis.

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At the top of the list is a call for the province to create between 500 and 1,500 more shelter spaces.

“More can be done for these people. I’ve experienced homelessness multiple times throughout my lifetime, and I know what it’s like to not have a place to sleep and not have a place to rest your head,” said Chris Livingstone, vice-president of the Aboriginal Front Door Society.

“It’s like living in a fog because you’re always protecting your stuff. You’re always operating on no sleep.”

The group’s second key recommendation was the preservation of at-risk modular housing units.

Two of the city’s modular housing buildings representing 144 units, one at Little Mountain and one in the future site of the new Vancouver Art Gallery downtown, have been shuttered due to development.

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Phoenix Winter with the Canadian Lived Experience Leadership Network said the city and province need to move immediately to relocate and reactivate the housing.

“It’s really a crime that those usable units are sitting there and they’re not being used,” she said.

“They could be moved to another site somewhere else. The city has land on 150 EasyPark parking lots it controls and there’s land east of the Cambie Bridge that could be used.”

The groups are also calling for the creation of a managed tiny home village on a port-owned parking lot adjacent to the CRAB park homeless camp.

Other recommendations included the creation of daytime hangout places for people living on the street where they can stay warm, sleep and eat, as well as the creation of a hygiene outreach program with mobile laundry, shower and medical services.

On Thursday, the City of Vancouver announced two new winter shelters will be open every night between November and March, providing 67 additional beds.