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Lyanne Alexander says if a proposed homeless shelter opens beside her Maple Ridge daycare, she’ll have to close.

“We have 45-plus families in our centre and 55-plus children,” said the co-owner of Meadow Ridge Centre for Childcare on at 21409 Lougheed Highway.

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“We’d have to close. We’ve got feedback from families that if it goes through, they’ll go elsewhere. I don’t blame them. If I had children here, I’d do the same.”

Alexander said the low-barrier centre would be built beside their facility in an empty lot that’s already frequented by homeless and drug-addicted people.

“We see a lot of homeless people there, drug users, condoms. If it was a built facility, it would be magnified hugely from what we’ve seen,” she said.

Alexander is one of scores of business owners upset at the plan, which would see a new shelter equipped with 30 shelter beds, 30 transition beds and an additional 30 “wet-weather” beds for the winter months.