Construction on a new emergency shelter for the homeless won't start anytime soon after Coquitlam city council learned this week there's no provincial cash available for the project.

On Monday, Mayor Richard Stewart and councillors received an email from city staff who met with BC Housing officials last Thursday, notifying them the permanent shelter planned for 3030 Gordon Ave., off Westwood Street, and a 30-unit apartment block for women and children, run by the YWCA at 528 Como Lake Ave., are on hold because of lack of funding.

Councillors on the city's land use committee expressed frustration and called on city council next week to endorse a letter stating its disappointment with the provincial government. It also wants Victoria to allocate a building at the Riverview Hospital for a temporary shelter.

"It may not be perfect, but it's a roof over their heads," Coun. Mae Reid said on Monday.

Calls to BC Housing were not immediately returned and no one from the YWCA could be reached for comment on Tuesday; however, Mayor Stewart told The Tri-City News the homeless shelter "is not dead... the budget hasn't been allocated yet," he said.

Stewart said besides the economic challenges facing the provincial and city government to move the capital projects forward, Coquitlam has yet to get its ducks in a row for the shelter: the rezoning, building design and building permit processes haven't begun and a proponent to run the facility has yet to be selected. As well, the province still hasn't signed off on the memorandum of understanding on who will pay for what before shovels hit the ground.

According to a city report, dated June 19, Jim McIntryre, Coquitlam's general manager of planning, said council finalized the MOU in March. Under the proposed MOU, the city would:

• lease a portion of the 2.3-acre Gordon Avenue site to BC Housing for $1 for 60 years, estimated to be worth $750,000 in current land value;

• exempt property taxes, estimated to be $3.8 million in 2009 dollars over 60 years; and

• pay for soil remediation.

In turn, the province would:

• fund pre-development costs up to — and including — the building permit stage;

• secure funding to develop and operate the shelter 24/7;

• pay for development cost charges;

• pay for site servicing and off-site improvements; and

• pay to remove hazardous building materials.

McIntyre said the cities of Port Coquitlam and Port Moody have been asked to pay for part of the DCC ($100,000 each) as the shelter would serve the Tri-Cities. Stewart said PoMo has declined while PoCo is reviewing the request, Mayor Greg Moore told The News on Tuesday.

Stewart said Coquitlam is considering the Housing First program recently launched in PoCo to get people without a home immediately into an apartment or basement suite. If approved in September, the program would be modeled after homeless initiatives in Portland and Calgary.

"I'm not saying an emergency shelter is a bad idea, but we want to provide housing options to complement the services already out there," Moore said, adding, "There's lots of response when it comes to food and clothing and drug/alcohol rehab, but not actual housing."

"An emergency shelter is just a Band-Aid on the situation," Moore said.

Hope for Freedom Society spokesperson Rob Thiessen, who has secured $167,000 from Service Canada for a cold/wet weather program over the next two years, said his group predicted no shelter construction would start until 2011.

"That's just the way it is," he said. "We knew there would be a two-year shortfall. The province doesn't have the money."

The society is now gearing up the five Tri-City churches and its volunteers for the mat program, which is due to start Nov. 1 at St. Andrew's United Church in Port Moody. The program will also run once a month at Coquitlam's Eagle Ridge United, Coquitlam Alliance and Calvary Baptist churches as well as the Northside Foursquare Church in PoCo, if needed.

Still, while PoCo and PoMo have rezoned in perpetuity the participating church lands, Coquitlam has to go through its rezoning process as city council only designated their church lands for two years. "We need to get that done before the summer," Thiessen said.

jwarren@tricitynews.com