Complaints are swirling around a pair of downtown Vancouver's temporary homeless shelters, including allegations the facilities are attracting more drug users to the area.

Neighbourhood condo manager James LeClaire says the shelters at 1442 Howe Street and 1435 Granville St. have been a bane on his residents.

"I'm finding syringes within five to 10 feet of my door," LeClaire said. "I've seen people having sex in the alley, which is quite disturbing."

Although Vancouver Police say they haven't seen an increase in crime or house calls in the area, LeClaire says residents are now afraid to go outside.

"I don't think this should have ever been allowed to happen in our neighbourhood," he said.

Scott, a resident of the shelter, shares LeClaire's concern about drug use.

"All the drugs and shit going around in the alleys -- I'm getting tired of seeing it," Scott said.

However, he disagrees with LeClaire's attempts to have the shelter re-located.

"If they didn't like us in this spot, donate money to build a new place away from all this," he said.

Vancouver city councilor Kerry Jang helped set up the facility, along with the four other shelters implemented by Vision Vancouver last winter to counteract the dangerously cold weather.

Jang says there may be solutions other than uprooting the entire shelter.

"Whereever there's people, there's going to be drug dealers," he said.

"We had the same issue around some of the other shelters. What we did is we sent the police down - who identified the predatory drug dealers and got rid of them...and maybe that's the case here."

He also says the shelters are necessary for the city's substantial homeless population.

"We are still turning people away every single night," he said.

The City of Vancouver is asking for funding from the B.C. government to keep the shelters open through at least April 2010. If that happens, Jang says there will be community consultations.

If they're denied, the shelters could close as early as July.

A community meeting is set for Thursday.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber