The opening of a one-stop spot where unhoused people on the Semiahmoo Peninsula can access a range of services has been delayed after being met with resistence from some of its neighbours.
The centre, which would allow people to connect with financial support, physical and mental health care, legal aid and housing services, is intended to build on a smaller-scale drop-in service for people experiencing homelessness that has been running at the Church of the Holy Trinity in White Rock since October 2022.
This service, offered on Wednesdays from 1o a.m. to 2 p.m., is run by Sources’ outreach team as a peer support group where unhoused individuals can drop in for food and make connections.
Planned to take place inside the White Rock church, the new drop-in service, which would run every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., was set to begin July 11. But it never did.
“Some of the community neighbours have concerns about the congregating of individuals we serve. We need to be respectful and mindful of that,” Sources CEO David Young explained as the reasons for the delay.
“We need to be respectful of the impact of our services on the surrounding community, but we also need to be respectful to the people that are coming through the doors here.”
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During operating hours at the service hub, a social worker from the Poverty Reduction Ministry will be present to provide financial support, along with a nurse and social worker from Fraser Health Authority’s Integrated Homelessness Action Response Team (IHART) to provide wound care and other physical health care, a peer support worker from Communitas Mental Health, legal support by Unlocking The Gates, and housing and peer-outreach workers from Sources.
Although it’s a Sources’ initiative, Holy Trinity’s Father Joseph Dirbas stressed that both he and the church are adamant about hosting the service and supporting the work in any way they can, he said.
The challenge right now lies with how to exactly move forward.
“The people that we serve are already stigmatized and are traumatized, already have perhaps a sense of alienation from the broader community and the distrust of organizations and I need to be thoughtful about, am I exposing them to more of that because of the community not being as open as they might like to be?” Young said.
“But I also don’t want to disrespect the neighbours in the community, because most of them have been supportive and have been patient.”
A spokesperson for the church’s neighbours who oppose the service hub said he had no comment to offer Peace Arch News.
Of the concerns raised by the group, the largest relates to a daycare centre that operates at Holy Trinity.
Right now, daycare hours are before and after school, so there is no overlap between the outreach group and the child-care centre. However, the daycare will soon be changing its operating hours to an all-day service, so changes have been made at the church to ensure the children will be safe and kept in the areas intended for them.
“Those (safety measures) would happen at a childcare setting regardless of the population we service,” Young added.
The daycare and the service hub share the same room, but are separated by a sound-proof dividing wall. Other measures implemented include different entrances and exits to the building for the children and the other guests, and separate washrooms that are also physically divided by another wall.
Dirbas said that there were some issues with a liquor bottle found on property and people using substances near the church, which were all handled. Staff of the daycare do sweeps of the grounds every day before and after operating hours, Dirbas added.
“I can’t help it if people are using outdoors, near our site (and) we can’t control what people are doing after hours,” the priest said, even though substance use is not allowed on-site.
He notes that part of the issue is the visibility of substance use and homelessness because the community is not used to it.
“Fifteen years ago, most of the (unhoused) folks were living in the bushes,” Young said.
“So they were here, but what we’ve seen is a change in our community. We’re seeing far more visibility and that is uncomfortable for folks, it’s uncomfortable for me at times and people don’t know how to respond. I know that’s an issue for businesses and that’s an issue for people walking down the street.
“We’re a community in transition.”
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Now, Sources is looking at other locations to possibly host the service hub. It will happen, he insists.
Neighbours of the church are not the only ones who have voiced concerns about the service hub’s location.
Ritu Khanna, executive director of the South Surrey and White Rock Chamber of Commerce, said her group was approached by the City of White Rock for consultation on the service hub.
Khanna explained that business owners and employees are being harrassed by people who are using substances, who are also sometimes unhoused.
“The services, even though there’s more needed, it is attracting people from outside our community as well, so it’s not clear who is causing the element of where there’s damage to property or person,” Khanna said.
“We submitted our recommendation (to the city) that essentially we do recommend there be a hub for services, including not just a physical hub, but a virtual hub, but it not be located in the middle of a business commercial area, that another area be used.”
Young and Dirbas said they were saddened to hear this, as it creates another challenge in offering the service. With some residents and businesses not wanting the hub located near them, where else is left, they wonder.
“I know businesses have been challenged by some of the folks, but they will continue to be challenged whether we’re providing the service hub or not. That issue isn’t going to go away if we don’t have a service hub,” Young said.
Long-term, systemic-level changes are the only solution to homelessness and substance abuse, he added, but emergency services such as those provided by the hub, are needed because there is no system-level change happening. Dirbas added that the hub is for anyone who may need it, regardless of which community they come from.
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“There isn’t a clear plan around homelessness prevention, even for this winter…. let alone figuring out a long-term plan,” Young added, in reference both a daytime warming centre and overnight shelter for the cold season that have been running in the community. Locations for the winter season have not been solidified.
“It’s frustrating and I feel hopeless to a certain extent. I know people are working really hard on that and we’re rolling up our sleeves and participating on that. At least if we had a long-term plan on the permanent side, that’s good, and then you try to figure stuff out in the (interim) but we don’t have either.”
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