Vancouver city hall is resurrecting one of the controversial homeless shelters shut down last summer after complaints by neighbours.
Mayor Gregor Robertson pledges the 1435 Granville St. facility under the Granville Bridge's north end will be better when it reopens Wednesday.
A booking system for the 40 beds will regulate numbers, two meals a day will be offered and supervision will be around the clock.
Shopping carts and pets will be allowed, but posted rules say violence will not be tolerated.
"We have learned lessons from what happened," said Robertson.
An open house will be held January 20 to provide information and contacts to concerned neighbours.
"We have a very short timeline and our priority is to make sure we get shelters open and people don't die on the streets as they have in past winters," he said.
The city also reopened the 160-bed Dunsmuir House site on Dec. 22 and is hoping to have two more emergency shelters in Kitsilano and the West End.
Three of the Homeless Emergency Action Team shelters remain from last winter and operate at capacity. The program to create an extra 160 spaces is funded $1.2 million by the province and $500,000 by the city.
Robertson said funding was confirmed in mid-December.
He denied any connection to the province's $6 million deal to pick up miscellaneous Olympic costs, which was announced internally Dec. 22.
"The $1.2 million specifically came through BC Housing for our winter emergency shelter strategy and that's what the dollars were dedicated to and not related to the Olympics at all," Robertson said.
