Vancouver charity aiming to keep the city's most vulnerable warm and safe as temperatures drop
Temperatures are expected to dip below zero this weekend, a forecast that can be frighteningly cold for those who call the streets their home.
Hundreds of people gathered outside of the Lotus Light Charity Saturday to receive supplies, including food and clothing.
One of the people waiting in line was Tony Cairns.
"It’s very important," he said. "Because they care about people and that's a big thing."
Cairns has been homeless for two years. He calls donation drives like the Lotus Light’s winter event vital.
"The lineup has grown around the block in the last three years,” said Floyd Wong, the vice president of Lotus Light Charity Society.
The charity has been holding the event for 27 years, and Wong says the demand has been at an all-time high this year.
"Prices have gone up, rent has gone up, everything has gone up, and so the needs have increased,” he said.
The latest city stats show at least 2,000 people in Vancouver were homeless in 2020. It’s a number that Wong believes has only increased in the past two years.
Organizers expect to deliver packages to 1,000 people.
As temperatures drop, the need to help the city’s most vulnerable rises.
"Homelessness is a key, significant challenge for Vancouver," said Insp. Terry Yung of the Vancouver Police Department.
"Now the winter is coming up, we really worry about people living on the streets. Nobody, as I said earlier, nobody should be hungry or cold."
The VPD and BC Ambulance partner with Lotus Light each year to help the charity hand out donated items.
“We should ask ourselves, how can we be more inclusive?" Yung said. "How can we help people in need? We can all talk about it, but here today, we’re making a difference.”
This weekend, the city has issued an extreme weather alert and has opened warming centres until Tuesday.
It’s an option for those experiencing homelessness as temperatures drop, but for Cairns, it’s just the reality of sleeping on the street.
"When you're homeless, you're used to the weather, doesn't matter if it's raining, snowing or whatever, you get used to it,” Cairns said.
Instead, he said he’s focusing on the donated items, many of them basics that people with homes may take for granted.
"There's free socks, there's toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a lot people need it, eh?" He said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Feds 'not interested' in investing in LNG facilities: energy minister
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the federal government is 'not interested' in subsidizing future liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, including the electrification of projects currently in the works.
Chants of 'shame on you' greet guests arriving for the annual White House correspondents' dinner
An election-year roast of U.S. President Joe Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents' dinner Saturday.
Global measles cases nearly doubled in one year, researchers say
The number of measles cases around the world nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, researchers say, presenting a challenge to efforts to achieve and maintain elimination status in many countries.
Fair share: the right office solution can take finding the right partner
The rise of remote and hybrid work has made it harder to justify a full office, so more are leaning on co-working spaces that they share with many others for convenience and cost savings. The choice, however, comes at the expense of privacy and control.
What Trudeau's podcast appearances say about the Liberals' next ballot box question
Trudeau recently appeared on four podcasts as he travels the country talking up the Liberals' latest budget, which he's pitching as a plan to inject more economic fairness into society for those under 40 — a cohort that has kept Trudeau in power since 2015 but is increasingly turning to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Aerial photos show wide devastation left by tornado in China's Guangzhou
Aerial photos posted by Chinese state media on Sunday showed the wide devastation of a part of the southern city of Guangzhou after a tornado swept through the day before, killing five people, injuring dozens others and damaging over a hundred buildings.
Russian drones set a hotel ablaze in a Ukrainian Black Sea city
Russian drones early Sunday struck the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, setting a hotel ablaze and damaging energy infrastructure, the local Ukrainian governor reported, while ammunition shortages continued to hobble Kyiv's troops in the more than two-year-old war.
A munitions explosion at a Cambodian army base kills 20 soldiers, but its cause is unclear
Security was tight around a military base in southwestern Cambodia on Sunday, a day after a huge explosion there killed 20 soldiers, wounded others and damaged nearby houses.
Deadly six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 sparked by road rage incident
One person was killed in a six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 in Innisfil Friday evening.