Vancouver police officers won't use force to take homeless people to shelters during extreme weather, Police Chief Jim Chu said Monday.
VPD officers will use only "minimal non-forceful touching" to persuade a homeless person to seek shelter during extreme weather, Chu told reporters. He described such touching as equal to the support a person would use in helping an elderly person cross the street.
"If the person refuses that assistance, we will withdraw the contact immediately," Chu said.
B.C.'s new Assistance to Shelter Act empowers officers to take homeless people to shelters during "extreme" weather, such as periods of cold (below minus two degrees Celsius) or wet (freezing rain) weather.
Such "Extreme Weather Alerts" were issued for a total of 37 nights between December 12, 2008 and March 11, 2009.
Housing Minister Rich Coleman has said the Assistance to Shelter Act was drafted in response to the cold-weather deaths of mentally ill or addicted homeless individuals who refused to enter emergency homeless shelters.
Downtown Eastside activists have dubbed it the "Kidnap the Homeless Act," and suspect it will be used as a way to sweep homeless people off the streets during the 2010 Winter Games.
Other laws still allow police to force homeless individuals to shelters if they are under-age, intoxicated or fit criteria under the Mental Health Act.
There are between 10,000 and 15,000 homeless people living in B.C., according to researchers. A homeless British Columbian dies every 12 days, on average, according to statistics complied by the B.C. Coroner's office.
With files from The Canadian Press.
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dgiVista.org
2 years ago
Prove Me Wrong
I've also heard people calling it the "Olympic Kidnapping Act".
Since VANOC has the power to cause provincial legislation to appear, I don't expect the VPD has the capacity to disobey a VANOC edict.
Non-forceful touching doesn't sound that plausible to me. Prove me wrong, VPD and VANOC.
http://PoliticsReSpun.org/category/olympic-games/
kobeski
2 years ago
agreed
There have been plenty of times where we've heard one thing and seen another, so I agree with the above poster, prove us wrong.
morechatter
2 years ago
Stressing out the homeless
If a homeless person is said to die every 12 days how many die before they hit the proverbial rock and a hard place? The rock is used to beat your head in while sleeping on a hard bed of concrete as thiefs find themselves an easy prey.
I know if it came to me and the cat and dog hitting the streets please be kind and allow me my dignity and let Kevorkian save a tired soul from a life worst than death as your dignity and self worth are swept away as slashers seek out your warm flesh to watch you bleed to death. I say Mr. Chu please keep your hands off me as I have done no one any harm and the shelters are just as frightening as its bad enough being homeless and dying on the streets but then to have an officer man handling me for being homeless it is to much to comprehend in a country that cherishes its rights and freedoms.
Maia
2 years ago
Homeless people are a
Homeless people are a serious problem for every government. Providing them with shelter is another problem. However, their welfare cannot be ignored either. So, won’t everyone be happy if there was a solution in sight without stretching the coffers too much? Home prices are falling faster than people can get no credit check payday loans. The floor has been dropping out of the housing market for a long time.