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ARTS: LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! [pg. 23]
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WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 2018 Your community. Your stories.
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A FACE ONLY A MUDDER COULD LOVE
hELPINg ThE hOMELESS
Coquitlam council OKs temporary shelters Three churches will host cold/wet weather program Gary MCKenna
The Tri-CiTy News
MARIO BARTEL/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Ian Parker pushes his way up a muddy hillside in Port Coquitlam’s Castle Park during the master’s event at Saturday’s Donkey Cross cyclocross race. The event was the season opener for the Vancouver Cyclocross Coalition’s series of nine races across the Lower Mainland through the fall. For more photos from the event, see Sports on page 26.
The cold/wet weather mat program, which gives homeless people a place to sleep during the region’s harshest weather, is coming back to Coquitlam. Monday, city council approved a temporary use permit to allow the homeless shelter to rotate between three churches — Cavalry Baptist, Coquitlam Alliance and Eagle Ridge Bible Fellowship — on a monthly basis between October and March. The program will operate the same way it did between 2007 and 2015, before it ended following the opening of a permanent shelter in Coquitlam. Rob Thiessen, the director of the Hope for Freedom Society, said a rise in the number of
homeless people in the TriCities makes the temporary shelter program a necessary addition to the services provided at the shelter located at 3030 Gordon Ave. And unlike other shelters in the area, he said the mat program has rules and barriers for those participating; among those restrictions: There are no ins and outs allowed and anyone who is intoxicated or in possession of drugs or alcohol is not permitted entry. Shelter users are bused to the site from a pre-determined meeting point and the operation is staffed by volunteers between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Thiessen said most residents don’t realize a shelter is operating in their neighbourhood because the homeless people are brought in late at night and leave early in the morning. He added that when the shelter operated previously, Hope for Freedom was successful at getting hundreds of people into permanent see CHURCH SHELTERS, page 8
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