Rev. Clarence Li says he wants to “reframe” the public discussion around Sunshine Coast’s homeless from ‘Do you want a shelter in your neighbourhood?’ to ‘Do you want to save lives?’
Li is rector at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church in Sechelt, which has been accommodating the area’s only homeless shelter in its annex building for the past several years.
BC Housing and shelter operator RainCity Housing have been trying to find other sites for at least two years, and came out with a proposal earlier this year to lease District of Sechelt property at Ebbtide Street and Trail Avenue for a temporary shelter using modular buildings.
They’d hoped to be up and running by Nov. 1, but the plan, which would require zoning amendments as well as a lease agreement, met with some community opposition, and has yet to go before Sechelt council.
At an Oct. 3 public meeting on the proposal, Upper Deck Guest House owner Tanya Hall stood up to say she’d be willing to lease the travellers’ hostel to BC Housing as a shelter site for the winter months. After reaching an agreement with Hall, BC Housing is now waiting for the rezoning needed to operate a 22-bed, 24/7 shelter out of the Upper Deck.
The rezoning is expected to get first reading Dec. 6, with a public hearing to follow Dec. 19. As long as all councillors are present, they could vote on second reading at a special meeting immediately following the public hearing, with final reading and adoption to be considered at the Dec. 20 regular council meeting.
BC Housing and RainCity have also scheduled a public information meeting on the Upper Deck proposal for Dec. 4 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Sechelt Legion.
But for those anxious to see the shelter situation resolved before the worst of the winter weather sets in, that’s too long to wait.
An online petition has been launched calling on the District of Sechelt, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) and Vancouver Coastal Health “to declare a state of emergency on homelessness and open the Upper Deck shelter location now.”
Li supports the petition, and has encouraged people to sign it. “I want to stress the case that we have a public health emergency before us because the current shelter is operating at capacity and has been turning people away. We need the District of Sechelt to act right now so we could have more beds to save those who are at risk of dying out in the cold,” he said.
“It’s unconscionable for the district to waste valuable time and public money on a series of public engagement meetings that has only one possible outcome; that nobody would like a homeless shelter near their property no matter how well the concerns are being addressed.
“I’d like to reframe the public engagement question as whether lives of people who happen to be homeless are worth saving or not.”
Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne also seems to want to reframe the conversation, to put more emphasis on the province and other agencies. He said the state of emergency idea being put forward by the petition would be no more than an “empty, symbolic gesture.”
“Obviously, all members of council share the concerns of community members about those who have no housing and desperately need emergency shelter,” Milne said in an email to Coast Reporter. “I would urge everyone who wants improvements in housing, healthcare and shelter for our neighbours in need to direct their efforts to those responsible and with the mandate and resources to find solutions. The provincial government is directly responsible for housing and healthcare. Minister of Health Adrian Dix and the Minister Responsible for Housing, Selena Robinson, need to know we have a crisis in shelter on the Sunshine Coast.”
Milne said he’s confident that Sechelt is doing its part to respond to the situation, and said there’s nothing to prevent other churches on the Sunshine Coast or service agencies from stepping in to help.
“We need to have a community-wide discussion on how we respond to these issues. Who is responsible, how much do local taxpayers want to contribute, where are shelters best located, how many shelters or shelter beds are necessary, what can we do about the root causes of houselessness?”
Gibsons councillor Silas White raised the question of what could be done in Gibsons during a Nov. 21 discussion on the future of the old RCMP building on School Road, which has long been pointed to as a potential location for a shelter.
“The homelessness discussion in Sechelt also relates to here,” White told fellow councillors. “I’ve been trying to find out more about homelessness in Gibsons. We have at least eight, and the number’s probably eight to 12, of homeless people in Gibsons who don’t use the Sechelt shelter.”
BC Housing’s lease at the Upper Deck is effective Dec. 1, but without the zoning approval and renovations to improve accessibility and upgrade the kitchen, they can’t accept shelter clients.
Li said St. Hilda’s has agreed to another extension of its arrangement with BC Housing, this time until Jan. 15, 2018.
In the meantime, some shelter clients will have to sleep in tents outside the St. Hilda’s annex. Shelter staff said this week that the community has helped with donations of clothing, tents and sleeping bags to meet the shelter’s needs and a steady stream of people have been signing up to prepare meals.
The shelter uses a web-based meal scheduler, and people can find the dates and times where meals are still needed at www.takethemameal.com/meals.php?t=DBAR5950
Cash donations to support the shelter can be made online at www.raincityhousing.org (choose “Sechelt” from the drop-down menu).
