Services for people experiencing homelessness in White Rock are up in the air for next winter, with the overnight and daytime spaces offered last season likely not viable for the upcoming cold weather.
This information and a desire for permanent – rather than temporary – solutions prompted advocates from the community to ask city council for more.
During a delegation at Monday’s (July 10) regular meeting, local advocates spoke to White Rock council about their concerns for the unhoused community.
“In 2021 when Kathy Booth (PH2H volunteer) and I came before council and asked for such a shelter, we were told that it was impossible. We came back in ’22 with the same request and that council… they had the courage and creativity to say they would make it happen, a daytime warming shelter, and it did (operate) for six weeks,” said Cheryl Lightowlers, another Peninsula Homelessness to Housing (PH2H) volunteer and an organizer of the recent homeless forum.
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For the last 15 years, local faith communities have provided overnight shelter to people experiencing homelessness, but due to issues at last winter’s site — Mount Olive Lutheran Church — the overnight space was moved to Sanford Hall, which was only intended as a temporary, emergency site, and not one that is viable as a shelter space next season.
“As of today, there is no site for this winter. The first time this has happened in the history of extreme weather shelters on the Peninsula. The nearest site would be Cloverdale and it was already over-booked last season and it’s also very challenging to get there from South Surrey-White Rock, especially late on a cold night. A Peninsula site is urgently needed,” Lightowlers said.
She went on to outline how integral the warm, indoor space is for community members who are facing barriers to accessing housing.
“We averaged 24 guests a night. For 20 nights, there were 30 to 40 guests and for six nights, there were more than 40 and that was in the hall in a church,” Lightowlers said.
“It was their safe place in the winter.
“It was a Band-Aid and we don’t even have that for this year.”
Lightowlers highlighted how since the June 20 Homelessness on the Peninsula forum, the organizing group has met with representatives from City of Surrey, particularly with regard to the Homelessness Prevention and Response Plan. After the forum, about 85 residents of White Rock signed letters to council, expressing their desire for a permanent shelter in the community, which Lightowlers left with council.
“There is no year-round site for supportive housing on the Peninsula, none in White Rock and we are the only area in Surrey that does not have a year-round supportive shelter. We need this.”
RELATED: ‘There are humans on the street’: Supportive housing sites sought in South Surrey
In a follow-up presentation, founder of Engaged Communities Canada Society (ECCS) Upkar Singh Tatlay, who operated the city’s daytime warming centre, shared statistics and other updates with council.
“What we’ve seen over time is that the needs have greatly increased in this region… The numbers here on the Peninsula in White Rock and Surrey were astronomical on cold days,” said Tatlay, whose organization runs services for unhoused people all over the Lower Mainland.
The demographic of people accessing services was diverse, the operator added. From seniors, to women escaping gender-based violence, and young people aging out of foster care to people getting renovicted, every group of people using services increased in numbers compared to the 2021-22 winter season in White Rock.
“What this has really done is bring community together,” Tatlay said, sharing the story of one individual who was homeless and staying on the Peninsula for the last 15 years. It was not until he connected with ECCS that he was able to access housing, but it was away from his home, in Vancouver.
Through the extreme weather daytime shelter, guests received physical and mental health care – some for the first time in their lives – from counsellors and Fraser Health nurses and doctors. Volunteers on-site were also trained in harm-reduction and overdose-prevention practices, while guests also received food and clothing from donors and the community’s residents, Tatlay shared.
The city’s planning and development department director Anne Berry also shared an overview of how operations at the warming centre went.
The cold weather resulted in pipes freezing, causing water challenges that staff were able to resolve, with additional costs, she said. However, costs did not exceed the approved overall budget.
“We did receive very few complaints from a bylaw perspective but I would also note that the RCMP and bylaw staff did up their patrols and the operator worked very closely with us to make sure that any concerns that we raised were rectified as soon as possible,” Berry said.
Mayor Megan Knight said that she is working with Surrey and its mayor Brenda Locke “because they have a lot more resources than we do.”
To operate the daytime warming centre, the city had previously received a grant from the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), but Knight said that the grant is not available right now. City CAO Guillermo Ferrero is also working in collaboration with Surrey’s CAO, according to the mayor.
Coun. Ernie Klassen emphasized that city council is just as concerned for people experiencing homelessness in the community, as the advocates are, but echoed Knight’s response that the funding the city has received in the past is not available yet, and it is unclear if it will be.
“That doesn’t mean we aren’t continuing to look for other sources and I would like to feel that we as a community will come together somehow and we will figure something out for this winter. That’s my concern and my commitment to you that we will continue to look for options,” Klassen said.
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