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SURREY — Every other weekend for the last seven years, Linda Cabeza has set up a table on the “Surrey Strip” and served sandwiches to people sleeping on the street.

On Saturday, she was shocked to find the wide sidewalks bordering 135A Street deserted.

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“I’m amazed,” she said. “We always said there was no political will to address this problem. But I guess there was.”

Cabeza took her sandwiches to the new modular housing complex on 105 Avenue instead — one of three sites where the City of Surrey and B.C. Housing have provided 160 temporary modular units for Surrey’s homeless residents.

The supportive units will house people for the next two years until 250 permanent modular homes can be built.

Resident Liam Windecker said his unit is small, “but I like it. It gives me some hope.”

Windecker and his wife lived in a tent on the strip until last week when they were among the first people to move into the new complex.