VANCOUVER, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- A prolonged cold snap across Vancouver has put many of the city's homeless people in danger, prompting a response across the region to make available hundreds of extra shelter spaces to get the city's most vulnerable residents out of the cold.
Temperatures this week fell across Vancouver to well below zero degrees Celsius, despite sunny conditions, with snowfall expected on Friday and Saturday.
While Vancouver is often portrayed in media and by travel guide books as a wealthy, prosperous city, many people do not realize that the city and the region has a sizable homeless population. During the city's annual homeless count, conducted in March of this year, more than 1,800 people were identified as homeless.
When the temperature drops for an extended period, governments and organizations across 10 communities in Greater Vancouver will launch the so-called Extreme Weather Response network, adding about 650 short-term emergency shelter spaces around Greater Vancouver.
In the City of Vancouver, RainCity Housing is among several non-profit shelter operators. Its long-term shelter here on Wednesday was at over-capacity, so the staff had been directing people to the emergency spaces that came online this week as part of the emergency program.
Bill Briscall, director of RainCity Housing, said the Vancouver municipality, churches and non-profit organizations have provided about 260 places for homeless people to find shelter in the cold weather.
However, a major challenge is getting the word out to homeless residents that there are warm spaces available if needed, Briscall noted.
"On my way here to this interview I saw people sleeping outside. Even though I know the alert has been issued, so we still have to do more," he told Xinhua.
The Greater Vancouver annual homeless count provides a one-day snap shot of the region's homeless population. This year, there were 2,800 people without a home in the region -- more than 1,800 of those were in the City of Vancouver.
One Vancouver resident, who called herself Stone, told Xinhua she had once spent nearly a year sleeping in shelters. Now Stone has housing, but it is not stable and she could once again end up living on the streets.
"Ninety percent of the people I met in the shelter have been abused by their own manager or, how you call it, landlord or landlady," she said.
The cold weather creates worry among the city's homeless population, she said, but many don not trust others at the shelters and feel safer out on the streets.
Others, like herself, feel embarrassed to have to sleep on a mat on the floor, she said.
"I slept on the floor for many weeks just to have a warm place. It's very degrading. But at least you know you're not going to die, you know, in a cold place," she added.
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