BC Housing is in the process of forcing the Emergency Shelter in Abbotsford to switch to a 24/7 (hours/days) schedule and adopt operational policies dictated by BC Housing.
This change will have negative consequences not only on the shelter operations but upon all other programs offered at the Centre of Hope.
Why should Abbotsford be concerned? The homeless are part of our community and actions that have negative consequences upon them will in turn have negative effects upon the community as a whole.
The concern is not that BC Housing has come up with a new homeless program to be implemented through the shelters in BC, but rather that it is being imposed on all shelters without considering if the new policies are appropriate for a given shelter and/or location. They are forcing even shelters not wanting to run on the 24/7 basis, for good sound reasons, to run 24/7 – or they will not get any funding. Either the Emergency Shelter runs under their program or Abbotsford loses its shelter funding.
Since the new policy comes with increased funding, one would think that BC Housing would recognize that there must be serious concerns about the negative effects on some of the shelters for them to seek to not receive more money. Unfortunately BC Housing has not shown any evidence that they are interested in whether there are good reasons to not change shelter operations. Rather they are blindly forcing all shelters to change, ignoring that “one size fits all” policies often have very negative consequences for those of odd size.
For communities with multiple shelters, for larger shelters and shelters with separate entrances the new policy is doable.
The emergency shelter is the only shelter in Abbotsford/Mission, it is small – actually totally inadequate in size for the increasing demand for shelter space and it shares the entrance path with the majority of other programs. In fact the shelter space is used during the day for other programs.
I want to be very clear that the concern is not with the new shelter policy itself, but that due to the size and location of Abbotsford’s emergency shelter implementing it will have negative results that will far outweigh any benefits, causing a great deal of damage and hardship to the people the policy is suppose to help.
The concept behind the new policy is good. What is lacking for the new shelter policy to be solidly successful, is the other programs needed to follow upon and provide support for the homeless to transition out of the shelter system and into more (and increasingly) stable housing. The government has put up a doorframe and door as an entrance point but they have failed to build the rest of the structure needed to provide a home to the homeless. But that is an argument for another time.
As stated I like the concept behind the new shelter policy initiative. However I think that the specific physical reality of the Abbotsford emergency shelter makes it totally unsuitable to running 24/7. Forcing the shelter to run under the new 24/7 rules will have many negative consequences far outweighing any possible benefits.
Addressing homelessness requires participation by the community. In this case what is needed is for members of the community of Abbotsford to contact our local MLA’s Mike de Jong (mike.dejong.mla@leg.bc.ca), John van Dongen (john.vandongen.mla@leg.bc.ca) Minister Rich Coleman (rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca) and Premier Gordon Campbell (gordon.campbell.mla@leg.bc.ca, premier@gov.bc.ca) asking for their help in getting BC Housing to continue to fund the emergency shelter under its current operations rather than forcing a change with negative outcomes upon the shelter.
It would not hurt to ask them to see if there are any other shelters that will be or are being negatively impacted by being forced to adopt new operational behaviours and policies.