Frostbite a growing concern for Fraser Valley's homeless

Outreach workers in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley say homeless people are turning up at shelters with cases of frostbite.

Surrey Urban Mission Executive Director Mike Musgrove says he fears some people could lose fingers and toes if they sleep in tents instead of emergency shelters during the cold snap.

"I have one fellow in here who showed me his feet and they had those little white dead spots on them," Musgrove said.

"Of course it's happening, so we had an outreach worker go out to the spots where people are camping out in the woods."

Badly frostbitten from sleeping outside

Cory Buettner, an outreach pastor with Ruth and Naomi's Mission in Chilliwack, has spent most of this week trying to convince the homeless in his city to come to his shelter to get out of the cold.

"There are two or three guys that I talk to on a daily basis that I am trying to convince to go to a hospital," Buettner said.

"There is one guy whose feet are completely white and he won't go in because he's afraid they're going to cut them off."

Buettner says they can't force the man to see a doctor, so they do their best to help him keep warm.

"We try to help him out and give him new socks and when his shoes wear out, we give him new shoes," he said.

"We let him come in and warm his feet up but really, he needs to get medical attention."

Ward Draper, a pastor with 5 and 2 Ministries in Abbotsford, says there is a man in his city whose fingers are badly frostbitten.

All three shelters say they need donations of warm winter clothes including boots, thick socks and sweat pants.