Petition seeks shelter for homeless women

An online petition asking the Vancouver City Council to create a shelter for homeless women has gathered more than 30,000 signatures, including nearly 2,000 from Washington residents.

Vancouver resident Dorothy Rodriguez-Anderson said she started the petition because homeless women face violence and rape in the streets, according to a press release from Fitzgibbon Media Inc., based in Washington, D.C.

“The girls are sitting ducks,” she states on the petition. “The women just live on the street, getting used like a carnival ride.”

Almost daily, Rodriguez-Anderson, 50, rounds up volunteers and takes donated food and supplies to homeless camps, where she has gotten to know many of the people, the press release said.

She is founder of the My Life Directive Foundation, an online registry service that allows people to provide medical and emergency contact information to health care organizations worldwide. Her work with the foundation led her to begin helping Vancouver’s homeless, and eventually, to start her petition effort.

She plans to present her petition signatures at Monday’s council meeting, the press release said.