Agencies in Abbotsford, B.C. are facing resistance to a proposed provincial plan that would force homeless people to seek shelter during extreme cold winter nights.

A number of homeless people choose not to seek shelter for various reasons, such as mental health or addiction issues, or lack of trust.

The government wants to strengthen police enforcement so they can move someone to a shelter with or without their consent.

“But,” says Deb Lowell public relations director for the Abbotsford branch of The Salvation Army, “our organization is not equipped to take people who refuse shelter. We can’t force someone to stay in our facility against their will. It would require a whole new level of staffing.”

The call for change was motivated by the death of a woman in Vancouver last winter who refused a shelter bed. She died after a candle ignited in her makeshift tent.