The city of Vancouver spent at least $40,000 to operate warming shelters at five community centres during a prolonged cold snap that started mid-December.
These estimated costs from Dec. 17 through Jan. 5 covered operations, security and staffing, according to information from the city. The city foot the bill to open the warming centres although four of the five buildings are operated by the Park Board.
Nearly 4,000 visits have been made to the five warming shelters since they opened. Britannia and the West End centres are open tonight (Jan. 13).
Attention Everyone! The West End Community Centre, 870 Denman will be OPEN TONIGHT as a WARMING CENTRE from 10pm to 7am. Please tell people pic.twitter.com/3QydYxcqNv
— WECCA (@WestEndCC) January 13, 2017
The most busy has been Britannia, where an average 168 people came by each night, totalling 2,866 visits between Dec. 17 and Jan. 10. The centre remained open this week and welcomes food donations.
Before it closed Jan. 8, Creekside was open 17 nights and counted 481 total visits with a spike on Dec. 23 when 143 people stayed indoors while the temperatures dropped and it snowed 15 millimetres.
An average 31 visits were made in 18 nights at the West End community centre, which closed Jan. 10 but has re-opened for tonight following a marathon special Park Board meeting Jan. 12.
The Sunset and Kitsilano community centres were briefly open as warming centres. Over two nights, Kitsilano saw three visits, and Sunset saw six visitors in four nights.
In response to community centre staff burnout at Creekside and the West End, warming centres opened at the former Quality Inn and the Evelyne Saller Centre.
With the exception of Britannia community centre, the centres at Creekside, the West End, Kitsilano and Sunset are operated jointly by community centre associations and the Park Board.
At the request of the city, the Park Board opened the warming centres as an emergency measure to shelter vulnerable people during heavy snowfall and below-freezing temperatures.
Park Board commissioners voted Jan. 12 to empower the general manager to make such decisions in a crisis situation until the elected board is able to develop more protocol regarding its response to extreme weather.
Twitter: @MHStewart
