Maple Ridge's only low barrier homeless shelter closes

The only low barrier homeless shelter in Maple Ridge closed its doors Wednesday afternoon, leaving dozens of people wondering where they're going to sleep.

Funding for the 40-bedRainCity shelter on Lougheed Highway near 222 Street ran out on May 31.

Dwayne Martin, who has called the facility home for about seven months, says he now has nowhere to go.

"I haven't really thought about it, too much," Martin said.

"I've been worried about getting all my stuff out [of the shelter] and finding a place to put it."

Ty Doucette, who has also been staying at the shelter, says he hasn't had any luck trying to find a place over the last several months.

"Nobody seems to want to rent to people with any kind of issues, whether they're on welfare or mental health stuff or whatever," he said.

A small group of protesters held a demonstration outside the facility Wednesday.

Finding solutions

RainCity staff have been working for months to help residents try to find places to stay.

"We have been working with people really diligently, trying to find options for them," said Rain City Housing co-executive director Catherine Hume.

"We would all loved to have been talking to you today about all 40 people from inside the shelter who have found safe and secure housing but we're not in that place. We're confident that we can be in that place by the fall."

Hume says some people from the shelter have moved into transitional housing and she's hopeful the remainder will move across the street to the Salvation Army, which just opened several emergency beds.

She admits, however, that many people will likely move onto the street or to a nearby tent city.

Tent city

Originally, the RainCity shelter was only supposed to be open for six months but funding was extended when plans for a permanent shelter in Maple Ridge fell through.

In early May, a group of homelessness activists set up a tent city on a municipal lot to protest the closure of the shelter.

The city is going to court on Monday to seek an injunction to close the camp.

"Concerns relate to physical harm to the property and delays to the city's park development plans," the city said in a news release.

"The city is aware, for example, of several rudimentary latrines having been dug into the property, used hypodermic needles being discarded on the property and garbage collecting on the property."

Martin says he's disappointed the city isn't doing more to help its homeless population.

"Not everybody is a thief and a drug addict," he said.

"Nobody chose to be homeless and it's not illegal, either. If you lose everything and you walk down the street and people are hating you. It doesn't make sense to me. Everybody should spend some time on the street for a month. You'd smarten the hell up."

Community anger

A small demonstration was held outside the shelter Wednesday afternoon and Grover Telford with the Facebookgroup, Protecting Maple Ridge, got into an argument with some of the protesters.

"You can't just come in and say there's going to be a low barrier shelter when there are businesses and people who live there whose livelihood depends on it," he said.

"We don't feel we're being taken seriously at all and we're upset about it. We have rights, too. We all want to help the homeless and see them get free of their addiction but we need to live in this community."