Ridge Meadows Home Show draws homeless shelter opponents

Simmering tensions over Maple Ridge’s homeless crisis played a part at the city’s annual home show.

Opponents of a proposed new supportive housing facility and shelter on the 11000-block of Burnett Street turned up at the Ridge Meadows Home Show over the weekend.

It was too much for Maple Ridge resident Elizabeth Taylor, who said she felt an event dedicated to housing shouldn’t have made space for an “anti-shelter booth.”

“To bring in this group and allow them to sign petitions is widening the divide,” she said.

Taylor says the group have also been active at previous open houses on supportive housing.

Pictures from the event show the group with signs reading “No low barrier shelters” and “Addicts, seniors, and kids don’t mix.”

WATCH: Maple Ridge protest over new homeless shelter

2:07 Maple Ridge protest over new homeless shelter

Ahmed Yousef with the Burnett Street Neighbours group said they represented many members of the community who had every right to be there.

“The home show itself has a community section and that’s where we were. There were political parties, both provincial and federal, that were represented. There were many community organizations.”

Yousef said 1,500 people signed a petition at the home show asking for better consultation around homeless shelters.

Organizers of the event say the home show has hosted political parties for years to give attendees a chance to “connect and communicate.”

Housing activists in Maple Ridge estimate as many as 100 people have been living in a homeless tent city known as Anita’s Place.

The province is spending $3.6 million for the Burnett Street property, with the plan to create 40 new supportive housing units and to relocate an existing 40 shelter beds from a Salvation Army shelter on Lougheed Highway.

In March, the province also bought land on Royal Crescent to build 55 temporary modular housing for homeless campers.