The mayor of Port Moody is calling on the B.C. government to do more to address homelessness, mental health and substance use in local communities.
Mayor Meghan Lahti said homelessness is a growing concern across the Tri-Cities. In a letter sent to the province on behalf of council, she’s calling for immediate temporary action while it continues to work with municipalities for long-term solutions.
“There has been a recent decrease in shelter spaces (including emergency weather shelters and supportive housing), and significant gaps in housing supports to address the growing need,” Lahti said in a statement.
On July 15, Coquitlam council directed that city’s staff to send letters to BC Housing, as well as relevant provincial and federal ministries, raising concerns about the operation of the 3030 Gordon Ave. shelter and supportive housing facility.
Opened in 2015, the facility near Coquitlam’s city centre was designed to offer supportive housing for 30 people and permanent shelter beds for another 42.
But in recent months the neighbouring sidewalks and boulevards have become crowded with an encampment of tents and tarps.
According to a report by Andrew Merrill, Coquitlam’s general manager of planning and development services, RCMP attended to nearly 500 calls at 3030 Gordon in 2023, and another 110 calls to a city property next door. Coquitlam Fire/Rescue responded to 218 calls at the shelter, most of them for overdoses or drug poisoning.
Merrill said city bylaw staff were also on site daily responding to the encampments on public property, as well as trash build-up and illegal dumping.
“The situation keeps getting worse,” said Coquitlam Coun. Brent Asmundson in response to Merrill’s report.
Coun. Dennis Marsden called 3030 Gordon “an abysmal failure,” while Coun. Steve Kim called for the province to live up to its commitments to provide wrap-around services to help those in need.
“Words mean nothing at this point,” he said.
Several letters sent to the Tri-City News by neighbours of 3030 Gordon decried the worsening conditions around the facility as well as increasing incidents of theft and open drug use in the surrounding community.
“The impact to our neighbourhood was bad enough before the tents started to arrive,” said one.
Letters: Readers speak out about Coquitlam's homeless shelter https://t.co/yowB8Eb79z
— Tri-City News (@TriCityNews) July 15, 2024
In her statement, Lahti said Port Moody supports Coquitlam’s call for a more coordinated approach to secure additional supportive housing as well as services to help residents cope with mental health and substance use issues.
But Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA Selina Robinson, who was a Coquitlam city councillor when an offer to provide city property to BC Housing for construction of 3030 Gordon was approved, told the Tri-City News Port Moody and Port Coquitlam have to step up their efforts to help vulnerable populations as well.
She said all three of the Tri-Cities have been “dragging their feet."
"We need four or five additional smaller facilities around the Tri-Cities," Robinson added.
Since 2021, Port Moody has activated Kyle Centre as an extreme weather response shelter operated by the Phoenix Society when temperatures dip in the winter or there’s an extended period of rain, snow or wind.
Its management was taken over by the Progressive Housing Society in 2023, but arrangements for the coming winter are uncertain.
With files from Janis Cleugh, Tri-City News
'Predictable,' Coquitlam MLA says of Tri-Cities' homelessness https://t.co/gfXccKBml7
— Tri-City News (@TriCityNews) July 17, 2024
