By Tyler Orton
The Tri-City News
The number of women using the Tri-Cities' temporary homeless shelters has doubled from last year despite a slight dip in overall intake at the facilities.
Rob Thiessen, managing director of the Hope for Freedom Society, said it's difficult to pinpoint why so many more women are using his organization's cold/wet weather mat program this season.
"It's not that there are twice as many homeless out there," Thiessen said, adding the most recent homeless count shows the same number of women as previous years. "It's just that, for whatever reason, twice as many women have decided to use the shelter."
He said social impacts may be responsible for the increase this year as many women come to the shelter with male partners.
The mat program is operating out of Coquitlam's Calvary Baptist church for the rest of January before moving across the city to Eagle Ridge Bible Fellowship in February. The program will end the season, setting up shop in March at St. Andrew's United Church in Port Moody.
Although snow blanketed Metro Vancouver over the weekend and the white stuff continued to fall this week, Thiessen said the shelter at Calvary Baptist saw no increase in the number of people coming in.
"We've never been able to make a connection between attendance at the shelter and the weather," he said.
Just 10 people used the shelter services Sunday evening as temperatures dropped below freezing. In fact, Thiessen said the society experienced its highest intake levels - 17 people - this season on a day of mild weather.
"The positive thing is, even though we're not having really big numbers, we're still able to get people off the streets," Thiessen said, noting the society's ability to find permanent housing for people always goes up during shelter months.
"So far in the two [full] months we've had the shelter - November and December - we've been able to move 12 people off the streets."
The cold/wet weather mat program has been housed in Tri-City churches during fall and winter months since 2007.
A permanent shelter is now planned for city land at 3030 Gordon Ave. in Coquitlam.
