UGM pushes back after Chilliwack mayor claims unhoused being driven to his city

A video clip sent to the mayor of Chilliwack is causing a bit of a stir online — but the charitable organization involved in the controversy is pushing back.

The footage, first uploaded by the Chilliwack Progress, shows a Union Gospel Mission (UGM) van dropping off two people in the city.

UGM has confirmed to CityNews that the van is owned by them and the two people were unhoused.

The person filming the situation is heard saying, “we’re tired of everybody bringing everybody out here to Chilliwack and dropping them off,” going with the unproven narrative that vulnerable out-of-towners are being dropped off in the city.

Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove says this has been an “ongoing issue” in his city, and claims the aforementioned video is proof this is happening in Chilliwack because the city has a lot of services set up for the community.

“The perception of it was just not good. I lit my hair on fire. Just, why are you bringing these people to my city?” he asked.

The mayor says the whole situation, with the van dropping the two people off, “just didn’t feel right.”

“It just painted a picture of, they’re just coming here because they know there’s some services here, but unfortunately there isn’t,” Popove continued. “What would you think if you had seen that, just out of the blue?”

‘[We don’t] drive community members anywhere unless there is a really clear plan in place’: UGM

The narrative isn’t sitting well with the UGM, and according to the organization’s Nicole Mucci, the video doesn’t tell the full story. She says transporting these two people was an act of “good faith.”

Mucci explains a volunteer drove the “two unhoused individuals” to Chilliwack as they had been planning to look at a rental unit and potentially sign a tenancy agreement. She says the volunteer had to park around a block away due to a lack of street parking in front of the unit.

“Our staff member had been in relationship with one of those community members for about three years prior to this, and he had called us up on Friday and said, ‘Hey, my friend that I’ve been staying in the shelter with, him and I are hoping to actually go check out a place tomorrow and potentially get the keys at noon. Is there a chance that you could give us a ride to Chilliwack?'” she explained, adding the outreach worker agreed.

However, after dropping the community member and his friend off, Mucci says the housing opportunity fell through and the UGM returned to pick the man up Tuesday morning, bringing him back to Mission after he spent a couple of nights at Ruth and Naomi’s Mission — a shelter in Chilliwack. She adds the UGM is unsure of what the man’s friend chose to do and does not know this person’s whereabouts.

Mucci is adamant the UGM doesn’t “drive community members anywhere unless there is a really clear plan in place.”

“Typically — nine times out of 10 — that plan involves another service provider that we have been in contact with,” she told CityNews.

“The vast majority of times, what happens is we connect with an individual who is either, in particular with the Fraser Valley Mobile Mission, which is the vehicle that is seen in that video clip, that vehicle works specifically with individuals who have been living in entrenched homelessness, or in encampments throughout the Fraser Valley, or in more rural areas where it might be difficult for them to access services. So, we develop relationships with them, typically over weeks to months to years, providing them the acute necessities they need in order to get by in the moment while they learn to trust us. And then we work with them, usually to figure out what services they might need to access, if they are looking to try to get into housing, or into detox, or into a shelter, or into a recovery center.”

Important context behind the video from Saturday of the UGM Fraser Valley Mobile Mission vehicle. Learn more: https://t.co/WMUxKLDzKP

— Union Gospel Mission (@ugm) April 25, 2023

She agrees that in this particular instance, there didn’t end up being a concrete plan in place before the two individuals were driven to Chilliwack.

But Mucci says the volunteer had it on good faith, given their relationship with the unhoused person, that they had housing in place.

“This is one of those instances where it wasn’t a specific service provider in this scenario. However, we believed that this community member in that moment was truly acting in good faith and believed that they were about to line up housing,” she said.

Amid ongoing speculation that people experiencing homelessness are being dropped off in the Fraser Valley, Mucci wants people asking those questions to know how long the UGM has been working with marginalized communities over the past 80 years.

She says before the UGM had a chance to see the video and confirm what was going on, outreach workers were “very alarmed by the concerned call that a van had been seen dropping people off.”

“In fact, we were so concerned that we sent outreach workers into the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver and we said, ‘Can you please go and have a conversation with some folks and see if people are getting offered a ride out to the Fraser Valley with the promise of housing, because that was the only information that we originally had on Saturday morning. Through multiple conversations with community members in the city of Vancouver, we realized that that was unsubstantiated,” Mucci explained.

Related articles:

• Indigenous women further endangered by East Hastings forced displacement: women’s groups

• Vancouver community groups offer support for people displaced from East Hastings encampment

• Metro Vancouver’s first ‘homeless count’ in three years

While Vancouver is experiencing an ongoing homelessness crisis, the entire Lower Mainland is also seeing increased numbers of people who are unhoused.

In recent weeks, city crews in Vancouver cleared tents and structures from sections of East Hastings per a Fire Chief’s Order, in the name of safety. The forced displacement of people experiencing homelessness in the area has renewed calls for action to address the crisis, with many asking where the unhoused are supposed to go.

The city continues to say there is enough shelter for those displaced who are in need.