...Continued from "Shelters"

We recognized that North Shore, an area which includes one of the richest communities in Canada, also has homeless people in the streets and parks, many of whom refused to leave their neighbourhood for assistance, choosing to sleep rough instead. Others came into Vancouver but felt at high risk, forced to leave their neighbourhood as no shelter existed on the North Shore.

Funding Partners
Individuals and organizations across the North Shore coalesced into a Task Force on Homelessness with a mandate of creating a local adult coed shelter as well as a youth safe house.

Lookout has been pleased to partner with the North Shore Homelessness Task Force to build the first adult shelter on the North Shore, thanks to grants from the Federal Government’s Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (through Human Resources Development Canada), the City of North Vancouver, the Districts of North and West Vancouver, the Real Estate Foundation and businesses and individual donors.

The City of North Vancouver has committed most substantially to meet the needs identified by all three North Shore Municipal Governments. The City purchased property and rezoned it in support of the shelter and for transitional housing. The result is that a 25 bed shelter, with an expandable 12 - 15 bed cold wet weather component, opened in the spring of 2004, and has since expanded to present capacity.