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Prior to the shelters being opened in December 2008, the doorways, alcoves and frontages of many retail storefronts throughout the city were “de facto” the homes of the homeless. Incidents of trespassing on private property, open drug dealing and drug use and aggressive panhandling were at an all-time high within the Downtown Vancouver BIA’s 90-block district.

However, soon after the shelters opened, and while they were in operation, these indicators started to plummet. Trespassing on private property fell by 80 per cent; aggressive panhandling fell by 58 per cent; visible homelessness, meaning people sleeping on the sidewalks, fell by 52 per cent; open drug dealing fell by 73 per cent and open drug use fell by 78 per cent.

With the closure of these seasonal shelters, most indicators crept back up slowly, but surprisingly not to the previous levels that we had witnessed. I credit this to the “wrap-around” services offered to and accepted by homeless people once they walked through the doors of the shelter — access to meals, counselling, treatment and more stable, long-term and secure housing. To our surprise, incidents of aggressive panhandling, open drug dealing and open drug use continued to decline.

What we learned from this is that the winter shelters are an important gateway to connect the homeless to services that they may not otherwise access, and this one-stop-shop approach is effective.

Secondly, the temporal nature of the shelters, although playing a critical role to get people out of the cold, is not a viable, long-term solution to homelessness. There needs to be a range of housing options from shelters to SROs to supportive housing. And yes, modular housing units are part of the equation because these pre-fabricated units can be added to the housing inventory much quicker than designing, obtaining approvals and constructing a permanent building. Like Lego pieces, more modular units can be added to the building or the entire building can be dissembled and relocated to another site.