The B.C. government introduced a controversial law Thursday that allows police to force homeless people to go to a shelter - but won't give officers the power to make them stay.

Homeless advocates and provincial civil rights watchdogs have denounced the legislation, saying it is little more than a veiled attempt to clean up Vancouver streets before the 2010 Olympic Games.

"It's not surprising because it's happened in every other Olympic city but the timing is really obvious," Wendy Pederson of the Carnegie Community Action Committee told ctvbc.ca.

"It's not fair and it's going to be abused."

Housing Minister Rich Coleman denies the allegation.

"What today we're trying to do is establish a tool so that folks can go and help out folks who need it most to make a decision that may save their lives," he told the legislature while introducing the law.

Coleman says police must be satisfied a homeless person is at risk because of cold weather before transporting them to a hospital.

Under the act, a community representative will determine when extreme weather exists in a given area, however, Coleman will also have the power to issue a weather alert if he deems it necessary.

Related: Read the Assistance to Shelter Act

The law, which will apply to anyone over the age of 19, is expected to be put into effect this winter. The B.C. RCMP support the legislation. A draft version of the law leaked this week revealed considerations to allow police to take the homeless to jail, but that was later dropped.

Coleman says the government conceived the law after a Vancouver woman, known only as Tracy, burned to death last winter in a fire she started in an attempt to keep warm.

On the night she died, Vancouver Police had offered shelter space to 101 people, but 12 refused.

Pederson said the new law would do little to help someone like Tracy who go out of their way to avoid shelters, even in cold weather.

"This legislation will push people to find places that are out of the spotlight. They'll be hiding from police and it'll be more dangerous for them."

Constitutional challenge

David Eby, director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, said his group will be examining the wording of the legislation closely.

"As soon as it comes out we're going to monitor the constitutionality of it and we'll be working with other groups that work together with the homeless to mount a constitutional challenge," he said.

Eby said he's worried the legislation will be introduced too close to the Olympics to strike it down in time.

Last month, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he wasn't sure the law was necessary and that the real problem is a lack of shelter space.

Although Coleman says there are 5,000 shelter beds in B.C., and 1,000 more being constructed in B.C., Robertson said current numbers aren't enough to house all of the homeless.

Wendy Pederson agrees.

"If the government really cared about the homeless they wouldn't have shut down two shelters in the summer. Period."