Squatters at closed homeless shelter willing to risk arrest

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Squatters at the Howe Street homeless shelter, which closed today, say they are willing to risk arrest. They vow not to leave the building until funding is available to keep it open or until other arraignments can be made.

The group says it’s upset at the city and the province for arbitrarily dumping people back on the street.

Homeless at the shelter have been offered accommodation, but protester Ryder Cooey says it’s the same housing these people have rejected in the past, “because it’s in the Downtown Eastside where the SROs [single-room occupancy] are unsavory and unhealthy.”

He says people fighting drug addiction are surrounded by temptation in that neighbourhood. There have been many stories about bed bugs at local SROs over the years.

Cooey says people shouldn’t be forced back onto the street when there is a clear need to keep the shelters open.

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