Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Councillor Jason Lum said during Tuesday's council meeting that Metro Vancouver hospitals are discharging patients and sending them to Chilliwack shelters, and the City of Chilliwack is not getting answers about why this practice continues. Local shelters are also at capacity, meaning there aren't enough shelter beds for the number of unhoused people in Chilliwack. 

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack City Council

Chilliwack councillors chide Metro Vancouver hospitals for discharging patients to Chilliwack

Sep 5, 2024 | 8:59 AM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack Councillor Jason Lum says it’s clear to him that Metro Vancouver hospitals are discharging patients and sending them to Chilliwack shelters at a time when local service providers aren’t equipped to handle them.

According to remarks made during Tuesday afternoon’s 2 p.m. council meeting, Councillor Lum joined fellow councillors and Mayor Ken Popove in challenging the unethical practice of shipping patients out to Chilliwack when shelters and other non-governmental agencies not only have limited shelter space, if any, but may not have the expertise to handle complex cases.

Lum made the comments during a policy resolution on Tuesday’s council agenda that allows the City of Chilliwack to not enforce zoning bylaws or B.C. building code regulations for a temporary shelter in the 46100 block of Margaret Avenue in Chilliwack, close to Ruth and Naomi’s, so that vulnerable homeless people aren’t living on the streets during the colder winter months.

“One of the major concerns I have is, I don’t know if we have gotten satisfactory answers out of the hospitals in Metro Vancouver discharging patients to emergency shelters in the city of Chilliwack,” Councillor Lum said. “I read some of the correspondence back. It’s clear to me that whether it’s Surrey, Delta, or Richmond, there’s a history and an ongoing process of discharging patients out of hospitals to Chilliwack to emergency shelters. If it was clear that this was Chilliwack citizens that we need to take care of all the time, it’s absolutely a no-brainer, but the idea that people are coming from Metro Vancouver and getting shipped out here in a taxi and people are not giving us the time, attention or satisfactory answers about why this continues to happen…we’ve got service providers out here raising the concern and the flag about this. I just don’t know where to go from here.”

Mayor Popove said he became aware from a Salvation Army representative that a non-communicative woman had been shipped from Richmond Hospital to Chilliwack, prompting a letter from Karen Stanton, director of public safety and social development for the City of Chilliwack.

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Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove speaks during Tuesday’s council meeting.

“We don’t have any real teeth to stop because these hospitals have just been putting folks in cabs and sending them our way,” Mayor Popove said. “It’s just not right for our service providers. They’re not equipped to take care of these folks that have complex issues, mental health, etc. It’s just not right.”

Councillor Lum expressed dismay upon learning that a supportive housing project planned for Richmond has been placed on hold.

“It’s unacceptable to hear this kind of stuff going on,” Lum said. “If there’s obviously a need there, and there’s obviously a need in other parts of Metro Vancouver, I strongly believe we have a track record of supporting our own…and making sure we provide wraparound supports. It makes it tough when you hear these stories.”

Lum referenced requests made by the City of Chilliwack to Surrey Memorial Hospital in previous years to stop sending discharged patients to Chilliwack.

Karen Stanton confirmed there was correspondence between the City of Chilliwack and Metro Vancouver health authority personnel about patients that were discharged from hospitals in North Vancouver and Richmond and wound up in Chilliwack.

Image: City of Chilliwack / Karen Stanton, director of public safety and social development for the City of Chilliwack.

“We did some have communication back requesting information; we’ve connected the health authorities with the service providers to gather some additional information,” Stanton said. “We can certainly follow up and find out if that happened. We meet regularly with our service and supportive housing service providers, so we’re very much aware of what’s happening on a regular basis and advocating for them because in many cases, there hasn’t been prior communication with the shelters in advance. That’s something we’re continuing to work with Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.”

Stanton pointed out that the number of permanent shelter beds is far less than the number of people that have been previously counted as experiencing homelessness in Chilliwack.

Councillor Chris Kloot said he supported the policy decision to not enforce existing regulations for the shelter on Margaret Avenue, but wanted to refer the matter back to city staff so that the City of Chilliwack could get answers on why patients keep getting shipped out to Chilliwack.

Image: City of Chilliwack / Councillor Chris Kloot.

“I’d like to refer this back until we have assurance that the strongly-worded letters that the mayor has written to Fraser Health and the health authorities so that we can get some meaningful, constructive feedback from them why this is happening over and over and over again. I certainly support these shelter beds. but I think we should refer this back to let them know… we want to see what you are doing and what are you implementing that will change the situation.”

Kloot said he had heard of the occasional rumours surrounding people getting dropped off in Chilliwack.

“But we’re finding out this is actually happening by different hospitals in Metro Vancouver,” he said. “I’d personally like to see some concrete action by the health authorities.”