Polly Krier is frustrated.
Two years ago, she took over as the coordinator of the Tri-Cities Homelessness Task Group. An in that time, she said, despite encouraging dialogue, little progress has been made to alleviate the housing crisis in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody.
"We simply are not getting anything done," she said during a Coquitlam council-in-committee meeting March 2. "Our goal is to get people off the street and we are simply not doing it."
In an interview after the meeting, Krier told The Tri-City News the issues have been discussed for years and policy makers are well aware of the problem and the solutions.
But unless they are willing to make some difficult decisions about bringing measures like a warming shelter and modular housing into the Tri-Cities, it is unlikely those problems will be resolved anytime soon, she said.
"I have been hearing a lot of the same things for many, many years," she said. "I realized this is a very old, tired dialogue."
She said the Homelessness Task Group consists of capable people willing to facilitate whatever is necessary to get homeless people into housing. But without significant changes, she questioned whether the group even has a future.
"To be quite honest, if we don't see a change, there doesn't seem to be a role for us in the community," she said. "What is the point of gathering together this amazing group of people who have the ability to make the changes when we are not making the changes?"
Krier's dissatisfaction with the rate of progress on the homeless issue in the Tri-Cities was not just reserved for the city of Coquitlam. She told The Tri-City News she will be making similar presentations in Port Coquitlam and Port Moody at upcoming council meetings.
Despite her bleak assessment, there are a few positives she said she has seen over the last couple of years.
She commended Coquitlam for supplying the land for the shelter and transitional housing units at 3030 Gordon Ave. And housing initiatives from the provincial government are a step in the right direction, although the benefits will likely not be seen for several years.
Krier noted there has not been any additional supportive housing in the Tri-Cities since 2014, adding she is "deeply concerned" about what the numbers from this week's homeless count will look like once they are released.
"I think it is a turning point," she said, later adding: "I would hate to see the task group go away. But it has to be something different. We are not a society. We are not a not-for-profit. We are simply a table of like-minded people that want our community to get better."
