The B.C. Coroners Service has confirmed it is investigating the death of a homeless man outside a restaurant in Duncan but isn’t providing further information.
Duncan Mayor Michelle Staples isn’t seeking an inquest into the death of the man, whose body was found the morning of Dec. 20. “We know what happened. Someone who didn’t have a place to live died,” Staples said Friday.
“Whether they died from natural causes, from weather, from an overdose, we don’t know how they died, but they died. They died without a place to live and that’s what we need to be looking at. No one should be put in that situation ever and so that is the conversation we need to be having.”
Temperatures dipped well below freezing the week of Dec. 19 but warming centres in Duncan weren’t open. Environment Canada reports that the overnight low on Dec. 20 was –5.9 C.
Overnight emergency warming centres were scheduled to open on Sunday, Dec. 18, but a bout of illness went through the staff and there were not have enough people to open the centre until the night of Dec. 20, said Staples.
“Everyone was scrambling to find another way of doing this but under B.C. Housing you have to have an organization overseeing a warming station and this organization couldn’t do it,” said Staples.
“It’s terrible. It’s tragic. “
The community has ben unable to find a permanent location for a warming centre in the winter and a cooling station in the summer.
“We haven’t been able to find a space. We have everyone overturning every stone trying to find a location. It’s frustrating,” said Staples.
“I understand why people are resistant to opening up spaces and at the same time, I don’t understand how we can’t work to find something because what’s happening now is not okay.”
The community has done a lot of work during the past couple of years to make some significant changes “and we’re still falling short, as is everyone else,” said Staples.
The community continues to advocate with the province and the federal governments, she said. “We continue to invite the in to work with us so that in our community we can take care of the people that need that support.”
All the shelters are at capacity, said Staples, who is not sure how many people are on the street, or living in their vehicles or couch surfing.
“We know how we can fix this, so let’s sit down and do it. We need to have the will collectively to do it. More and more people are falling through the cracks, sleeping in their vans and motor homes. We have the ability to do better,” said Staples.
Stabilizing people, housing them and supporting them, makes a difference to their lives in a very short amount of time, she said.
The Cowichan Valley Regional District had designated daytime warming spaces in public buildings open to the public on Dec. 20 and 21. The warming spaces were provided under criteria specified by the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. Temporary emergency overnight warming spaces were opened by the Cowichan Valley Regional District on Dec. 21 and 22 to fill an unanticipated gap in services provided to the unhoused or inadequately housed.
