At a special public meeting tonight, the Vancouver Park Board will decide if the city’s community centres will remain open to homeless people on an emergency basis as overnight warming shelters or if they will close out of concern for overwhelmed staff and scared patrons.
The focus is on Creekside community centre, located in the Olympic Village, which first opened Dec. 17 while overnight temperatures dropped, and housed an average 26 people a night with 143 visiting Dec. 26, according to the Park Board. The shelters opened as part of the city's extreme weather response.
The special Park Board meeting is 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Jan. 12 at the Park Board office (2099 Beach Avenue).
On Jan. 10, park board general manager Malcolm Bromley described how a child handled a syringe in one of the building’s bathrooms but, he clarified, this was not the reason for closing the warming centre.
"I want to make it perfectly clear that the closure of Creekside is not in reaction to that incident," he said. "Unfortunately dealing with syringes and injectables in Vancouver in public places is, at times, commonplace in some of our parks and some of our other community centres."
Bromley spoke with the father and said the child was not injured.
The Creekside Community Centre closed as a warming centre since that incident Jan. 9. Similarly, the West End Community Centre closed as a warming centre January 11.
“Our staff are very well-equipped, very calm and very thoughtful about how they deal with these incidents,” Bromley said at a press conference at City Hall. “What it does contribute to is the staff’s ongoing feelings of needing to take a break at Creekside and to see if we can consolidate some numbers.”
Environment Canada forecasts an overnight low of -6 degrees Celsius tonight.
The three NPA park board commissioners called for tonight’s special meeting amid criticism the Creekside and West End community centres not serve as a warming shelters. A warming shelter also opperates at Britannia, which is not run by the Park Board but does have staff on location.
“We appreciate the need to provide additional cold weather shelter relief for those in need,” said former chairwoman Sarah Kirby-Yung in a news release. “At the same time, Park Board facilities and staff are there to provide recreation services, and safety for patrons has to come first.
"Parents are sounding the alarm and saying they no longer feel comfortable going to centres like Creekside Community Centre,” she said.
Pivot Legal Society lawyer DJ Larkin will be present at tonight's meeting to argue the questionable legal grounds of closing the warming centres.
Bromley said the community centres were intended as temporary additions to the city's response because it was important people not be left out in dangerously cold temperatures.
"When the holidays ended and normal programming resumed at the centres, it became increasingly challenging for staff and patrons to maintain these warming centre operations," he said in an email to the Courier. "We are not staffed to run 24 hours a day in these facilities and there were concerns from patrons about safety with transitions between warming centre operations at night and community centre programs in the morning."
She said alternative locations outside the Creekside and West End community centres were already in the works when the incident with the needle occured Jan. 9. On Jan. 11, three alternative locations outside community centres were opened.
The warming centres that remain open include Britannia Community Centre, which has been visited nearly 3,000 already, and new locations at the Carnegie Centre, the former Quality Inn on Howe Street, and the Evelyn Saller Centre.
During the ongoing, prolonged cold snap, as many as five community centres opened on an emergency basis as part of the city’s extreme weather response. Those include facilities at Creekside, Britannia and the West End community centres while Sunset and Kitsilano opened their doors for a brief trial for four and two nights, respectively.
There are 956 permanent shelter beds in Vancouver, an additional 195 temporary winter shelter beds, and up to 234 beds available during extreme weather, according to the city.
People looking for shelter space can call 2-1-1 to check availability.
Similarly, in December, the Khalsa Diwan Society opened its doors to people seeking shelter.
The special Park Board meeting is 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Jan. 12 at the Park Board office (2099 Beach Avenue).
Twitter: @MHStewart
