Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Winter Homeless Shelter in Mt. Pleasant Open House Jan 13

A temporary winter homeless shelter was announced today - its opening day - in Mt. Pleasant at 677 East Broadway. It is scheduled to be open until "no later than April 2010."

The shelter will be holding an open house on January 13, from 5 to 7 pm, if you want to see inside.

The shelter is one of several being provincially funded just from now until April 2010.

City staff was ordered to issue permits "on an expedited basis."

The location is the same piece of city property where the 12-story building for homesless and "hard to house" is being planned. It's right by the westbound Broadway & Fraser bus stop where the #9, #8, and now also the #99 buses stop.

I post below the letter I received in email from city housing planner Andrea.Gillman@vancouver.ca . The letter came with two attachments, but as they are in .pdf I can't post them to the blog. Email her if you want to receive them.

One attachment states that city staff has been ordered to issue permits on an expedited basis so that provincial funds can be spent for temporary winter shelters around the city. The one is Mt. Pleasant is listed as 677 East Broadway - development permit #DE413544.

Here's the letter:

The Mount Pleasant Community Planning Team wishes to advise you of the following:
The City of Vancouver and the Province of BC are working with local non-profit operators in implementing a Winter Response to provide additional shelter capacity during the winter months. All shelters will be in neighbourhoods that have been identified as having a substantial homeless population but lacking adequate shelter resources. Shelter locations may include Mount Pleasant, Kitsilano, Downtown and Grandview-Woodlands.

On December 15th, council allocated $500,000 towards the Winter Response. Together with a $1.2 million contribution from the Province, funds will be used for renovations and shelter operations. All shelters opened as part of the 2010 Winter Response will operate for the winter months, closing no later than April 30th, 2010.
The first of these shelters will open tonight in the Mount Pleasant area at 677 East Broadway. The shelter will provide space for up to 40 homeless individuals each night. The shelter will be open 24/7 and will be operated by Raincity Housing and Support Society. An Open House will take place at the shelter on Wednesday January 13th, 2010 from 5 PM - 7 PM.

Please find attached a copy of the information letter sent out to neighbours of the shelter in addition to the Operations Management Plan provided by Raincity Housing. For more information please contact me via email or phone (noted below). You can also contact the shelter operator directly, contact information is provided in the attached letter.

<> <>

Thank you,
Andrea Gillman
Andrea Gillman
Housing Planner
City of Vancouver
phone: 604-873-7542
fax: 604-871-6488

No comments:

Post a Comment