The city of Coquitlam will have to make a zoning adjustment to extend the winter mat program for homeless people in local churches and the public will get to have a say in the matter.
Bruce Irvine, the city's manager of community planning, said a zoning change is required to permit overnight sleeping in churches and will likely be addressed soon at a council meeting to provide a temporary solution until a permanent shelter is funded and built.
Coquitlam is the only city that will require this change, which is tied to a housing agreement that lays out operating procedures for the program that began in 2007. Port Moody and Port Coquitlam already have zoning in place to permit churches to shelter and feed homeless people.
"We usually go through this every time we cycle through the procedure. It's important because it allows us to monitor if there are any concerns on the operating side or the community side," Irvine explained.
He said a report is expected to go to council next month and a re-zoning request will follow soon after.
That's good news for Rob Thiessen, managing director of the Hope for Freedom Society which runs the mat program.
"They need to make a decision on this particularly quickly," said Thiessen, who said the temporary mat program is still necessary even though the number of homeless people appears to have dropped in recent months.
The mat program, which ended March 31, was given a cash infusion for another year by the federal government but will likely continue for another three years until a permanent shelter is built at 3030 Gordon Ave. in Coquitlam.
But while the churches have agreed to host the program for another year, Thiessen would like to see shipping containers adapted for housing instead because a container village could be a location where more services could be provided, and he hasn't given up on the quest to find some land for that purpose.
In the meantime, the community is coming together on several fronts to provide health services for homeless people.
This week, the Laurel Foundation will hand over a cheque for $6,000 to provide mental health services for people who are homeless. Thiessen said the money will be used to hire a psychiatric nurse for weekly visits .
Fraser Health funding for the nurse ran out a year ago, he said; with the new grant, the nurse will be able to schedule appointments one day a week.
Dental services may also soon be available for homeless people, Thiessen said, after a couple of dentists volunteered their services and donations of supplies and equipment were received. Some local health clinics are now taking homeless people as patients, which is a new development.
All this activity is taking place as the society is witnessing a drop in homeless numbers. But now is not the time for complacency, he said.
"Homeless has been decreased because of a very concerted effort," Thiessen said, adding that numbers could rise again if resources are cut.
