Provincial: More than 30 perr cent of transit ballots are in.
Sports: Hunt has jersey retired in Stockton. 29
Education: School buses cut in budget. 3
Fr i d ay, May 1, 2 015 · mapleridgenews.com · est. 1978 · (office) 604-467-1122 · (del iver y) 60 4 - 46 6- 6 39 7
Lougheed connector on hold
Diggin’ it Curtis Brown of Golden Ears elementary takes part in the school’s production of Dig It on Wednesday. The play was a musical tale of ancient Greek, Roman and Chinese Civilizations. Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
SmartCentres ‘remains committed’ to city By Neil Corbett ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
Pitt Meadows council has put the SmartCentres development on the backburner. Council voted to indefinitely defer rezoning for the proposed commercial district near the corner of Lougheed Highway and Harris Road, with no timetable to bring the issue back to the table. Couns. David Murray, Janis Elkerton, Mike Stark and Bruce Bell voted for the indefinite deferral, despite the position taken by Mayor John Becker and Couns. Tracy Miyashita and Bill Dingwall that some timeline, even months away, was appropriate. After the vote, Miyashita and Dingwall wanted it recorded that they opposed the deferral motion. See Connector, 5
New positions for homeless task force City to hire four outreach workers By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
The federal funding gap that cost Maple Ridge its street outreach workers late last year is being filled by the city for at least six months. Council approved hiring four street outreach workers for six months, at a cost of $160,000, on Tuesday.
The Alouette Home Start Society, which used to hire two outreach workers, lost most of its funding Dec. 31, after the federal government changed to the Housing First model, which puts money into providing homes for street people, rather than emergency services. As a result, Alouette pared its outreach services from two fulltime positions to a half-time job, and closed the emergency bed part of its Iron Horse Youth Safe House on Jan. 31. While the Home Start society
now has provincial funding for one worker to help youth, women, people leaving institutions and aboriginals, executive-director Stephanie Ediger said the loss of the general outreach workers, who connect with anyone on the street, “has resulted in a lot of needs that need to be addressed, that we need additional resources.” The number of homeless people hasn’t increased, but they are now more visible, she added. “The numbers of visible homeless have increased because
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there’s no place to go.” Ediger doesn’t know if Alouette will be hiring the workers using the city’s funds. “I have no information on that, at this point. We haven’t been in the discussions.” In addition to approving money for outreach workers, council approved another recommendation from the Mayor’s Homelessness Solutions Task Force, to pay $75,000 for a consultant to recommend how to improve delivery of social services in Maple Ridge. See Homeless, 15
Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
The number of homeless people hasn’t increased in Maple Ridge, but they are now more visible.
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