Several Metro Vancouver cities have opened up extreme weather shelters for the homeless in response to the arrival of freezing overnight temperatures.
Rebecca Bell, coordinator of the Greater Vancouver Shelter Society, said shelters providing extra overnight spaces were opened this past week in Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, New Westminster, Surrey, Langley and Maple Ridge.
“It’s earlier than normal,” she said, but added cold weather spaces were opened in the first week of November last year.
More than 600 additional spaces can be deployed across the region to meet extra demand during cold weather when local cities issue extreme weather alerts.
Extreme weather sites are often set up in churches or community centres using temporary mats and provide spaces over and above those available in regular homeless shelters.
The extra spaces being offered across the region include 15 in Maple Ridge.
Bell said openings change according to anticipated need and can vary across the region because of differences in local weather.