Shelters Prepared For Blast of Winter Weather
Prince George, B.C. – The three shelters for homeless people in Prince George will be kept busy with a wave of cold weather moving into the area next week.
Temperatures are to start dropping with Monday night’s low of minus 11. Tuesday’s high is minus 7 while the low under a clear sky is minus 24. Wednesday is pegged at minus 12 and minus 21 for the high and low, respectively. Thursday’s high is minus 9.
ASAP Executive Director Audrey Schwartz says “we went into Extreme Weather mode on November 1st, so we’re all geared up now. In this kind of weather we just put people where they have to be because when it gets like the upcoming cold snap its peoples’ lives at stake.”
Schwartz says “all the shelters do rally. So ourselves and Ketso Yoh and AWAC will just put people on the floor if we have to. I do know that this extreme weather garners us an additional ten beds a piece. However, having said that, if we go over that we just make it work.” She adds that the ASAP shelter has been over capacity for some time.
“I think that between us we’ve done a pretty decent job in keeping people off the street and I hope no one ever gets put out on the street. If we have nowhere to put somebody and Ketso has a bed, we will make sure they’re dressed appropriately to get to Ketso and we make sure they get to Ketso and if they don’t, we call the RCMP who goes looking for them.”
The Extreme Weather status here runs from November 1st through to March 31st, no matter what the weather is like. Schwartz says “that was a community decision rather than going in and out of Extreme Weather which other communities do, and it works for them. We just felt that in Prince George we get enough inclement weather that we might as well just be ready for it all the time through that period. And it’s been working for us.”
Comments
It would be nice to have an update if anyone knows about the homeless people that were used for the recent Dinosaur exhibit at CN Center if they ever did get paid, and if so was it minimum wage, or the $5 ‘donation’ the company that hired them was talking about?
In the future if our city wanted to protect the homeless from being taken advantage of we could look at having a policy where if homeless are ever again used for any event that involves city property that they will be guaranteed the minimum provincial standard in employment pay.
Meaning that CN Center should be responsible for ensuring that those homeless people that were employed at CN Center for that event get paid in full at the minimum of the minimum wage. No passing the buck, if their is an issue it should be between CN Center and the event organizers and not the homeless people that were sent on their way after they were used.
The word will get out that PG looks out for its homeless and their dignity, and that PG doesn’t take kindly to those that would abuse the homeless that are making efforts to improve their life situation through acts of employment.
I can’t find the news clip but I’m almost positive they were paid. Yes it was a strange set up though.
they will be getting paid minimum-wage – story is at cbc.ca
My belief is THIS is where we should be spending the 1.5 billion dollars we are about to cough up for fast tracking the refugee process. Take care of those we already have, spend it on seniors and the homeless – nuff said
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