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Province to fund emergency shelters until May

The provincial government announced this morning that five Vancouver emergency shelters slated to close at the end of the month will remain open until the end of May.

The homelessness emergency action team (HEAT), put in place by Mayor Gregor Robertson in 2008, was responsible for the initial opening of the emergency shelters, but at the end of the month, the shelters were rumoured to be facing closure due to lack of funds.

Vancouver councilor Kerry Jang said the extension is not a permanent solution.

According to Jang, Premier Campbell and Rich Coleman, the housing and social development minister and head of the homelessness intervention project, decided over the weekend to keep the shelters open for another three months.

Jang said the shelters provide some stability for some of the homeless population and are target locations for outreach workers.

When asked about a solution to homelessness, Jang said, "I think we should have a year round shelter, I think there is a need for one; it's certainly an entry point for people to get into the system. We don't want shelters to be the solution, because they're not, they're clearly temporary and they're clearly crisis management."

According to Jang, the government needs to start investing in in-term housing to prepare homeless people for permanent housing by teaching them social skills and job skills.

The Vancouver Downtown Business Improvement association (VDBIA) has observed and documented fewer homeless people on the streets in the past six months -- from 180 daily in September, 2008, to 13 daily in January, 2009. Charles Gauthier, executive director of the VDBIA, credits emergency homeless shelters with the decrease in visual homelessness.

"Three months is a good in-term solution, but we're certainly going to be advocating for long term solutions," said Gauthier, adding that closing shelters after a three-month extension would be a step backwards.

"Closing the doors to the shelters is really not an option now," he said. "I think we have given these people some hope. I think they're having more interactions with providers, either health care providers or people who can put them in touch with people they need to get in touch with to get welfare."

Gauthier said that if shelters are working, they should be kept open indefinitely to help homeless people access support. It costs roughly $36 to shelter one homeless person for one night. With 500 clients in HEAT shelters, the program will cost the provincial government $18,000 per day.

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