The Hook

VANCOUVER - For Gary Sherwood, sleeping on the street beats having a roof over your head - if the only other option for housing is in the Downtown Eastside.

Sherwood is among a handful of people who have been camping outside a south downtown emergency shelter for the last week. That's despite the fact it shut down following complaints from neighbours.

"Some of us don't want to go to the Downtown Eastside," Sherwood said. "Some people feel it would be a trigger."

He says he's one of a dozen or so people who continue to camp outside the shelter under the span of a Granville Street Bridge onramp.

His situation highlights some of the dynamics involved in housing Vancouver's homeless people. There is a significant number who lived in neighbourhoods like the West End and Yaletown for years – many specifically avoiding the troubled Eastside.

Sherwood said people who live on the streets aren't going to disappear just because the shelter shut down. A neighbouring shelter was given a 30-day extension starting last week.

"The residents around here are going to have to accept it. When both these shelters are shut down, people are going to have to sleep somewhere," he said.

B.C. Housing says 12 people from the shelter were originally moved to a Downtown Eastside hotel before being placed in permanent housing, while another 17 who set up camp after the shelter closed have been housed.

On Sunday night, the remaining shelter on Howe Street recorded 40 occupants and 17 turnaways.

Irwin Loy reports for 24 Hours Vancouver.