Mayor urges B.C. to fund emergency shelters in light of severe winter forecast

Robertson urges B.C. to fund emergency shelters in light of severe winter forecast

Vancouver is still waiting for funding from the B.C. government to help pay for emergency winter shelters and get hundreds of homeless people off city streets.

And with forecasts calling for one of the harshest winters in half a century, Mayor Gregor Roberton says he’s worried that lives could be lost.

“I think it will be critical, given the forecast for a severe winter,” Robertson told The Province.

“If not, it’s going to be a brutal winter for hundreds of people. That’s the reality and it’s going backwards.”

The city has committed $500,000 towards an emergency winter shelter program with a budget of between $2.5 million and $3 million.

But so far, said Robertson, there’s been no commitment of that money from B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman.

Robertson said the city has been ramping up its winter shelter program every year since 2008 when a homeless woman known as “Tracey” burned to death in her shopping cart after lighting a candle to try to keep warm.


“It was only days after I got into office that Tracey died on Davie Street because she couldn’t access a shelter,” said Robertson on the eve of Homeless Action Week. “A shelter opened, literally, a few days after that, just a few blocks away. We weren’t in time to save her.”

Work and pray to never be too late again.