Council has pulled a 180 and reversed its decision to spend $195,000 to hire two staffers to deal with homelessness and other social issues.
Mayor Nicole Read brought the issue back to council at Monday's meeting after council earlier this month approved the spending, in the absence of Coun. Bob Masse.
But with Masse back from a week's absence, the spending was defeated by a tie vote, with the mayor, along with Couns. Craig Speirs and Kiersten Duncan in favour and Couns. Gordy Robson, Tyler Shymkiw and Masse opposed.
"I don't think it's something we should be doing. We don't do it well," Robson said.
"I don't think we're capable of doing that, nor should we."
He objected to the recreation and parks and culture department taking on the issue of homelessness, saying that previously, such issues were just dealt with by bylaws officers and police.
"Now, we're back to square one."
Coun. Corisa Bell is on sick leave which means there are only six councillors.
Masse also opposes the spending, saying that the money could be spent in other ways and that cities shouldn't get involved in social issues.
And when people are housed, more people just take their place, he added.
"As we move people along the continuum, people come to fill the niche that they were in," Masse said.
Council shouldn't play dumb and pretend that people are not moving to Maple Ridge for services.
"We can't control the influx of people."
Masse added that staff are being overworked to deal with social issues and homelessness. The parks, recreation and culture department wrote 12 reports in 2014 on the topic and two years later, that number had risen to 63.
"We have to stop doing that."
Instead, the city should press senior government for mental health care, changes to how foster children are helped and focusing on education and increasing income assistance.
Coun. Craig Speirs though argued for the spending, pointing out council was increasing its police budget by a million dollars this year.
"This is about prevention. It's wrong-headed to end this."
The drug and homelessness issues are getting worse, he added.
But, "We've put people into housing. We've worked our butts off to do that and we've been successful."
He said the city hasn't added to its social planning department in 11 years.
"I'm certainly disappointed and that definitely will have an impact on staff," but it's council's decision, said Coun. Kiersten Duncan.
She said the issue could be back at council later.
Read said the city is inconsistent in the social projects it supports.
Council was willing to spend $33,000 on overtime costs for one department in order to shift its meeting to evenings but is dickering over the $195,000 cost for social planning, Read said.
A proposal to hire one social planner was also defeated. The city is losing money by not having enough staff to research and apply for grants, Read noted.