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
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Powerful tornado tears across Nebraska, weather service warns of 'catastrophic' damage
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.