Emergency Shelter Open 7 Days Per Week

Nanaimo City Council Commit

To Open Shelter Daily Until March 31

The Unitarian Fellowship emergency shelter will be able to stay open seven days per week now until the end of March thanks to additional city funding. The shelter is currently open daily until Feb. 6, when a vote by the congregation will be taken which could finalize the new arrangements.

The emergency shelter has been operated by the Unitarians for the past several years but was only open during 'extreme' weather which meant any day the temperature was at zero degrees or colder with either wet or dry conditions. The other designation for 'cold' weather shelter meant the shelter would be open any time the temperature was at least plus two degrees with wet conditions. Anyone knows that dry and cold is much better than wet, anytime.

Previously, regardless of what the mercury said it was an unknown if the shelter would be open, which results in the shelter not getting as much use as it could have. People who are homeless are not going to be encouraged to walk great distance in inclement weather on the 'chance' a shelter might be open.

In order to perhaps better serve the homeless in need of shelter, the decision was made by city staff and city council to ask the Unitarians to consider opening seven days per week from now until the end of March. This will be decided after the neighbourhood has been notified, and only if the congregation approves of the change.

Current funding of $546.00 for every night the shelter is open comes from the provincial government under BC Housing on any day when 'extrmeme' weather is declared. This will not apply on all nights from now until the end of March, so the city has agreed to pay up to $35,000 to keep the shelter open every day regardless of the weather condition.

Currently this shelter is operated by volunteers only, but with the change to a daily opening, part of the city funding will help pay for a coordinator and 2 part time staff to help with the considerable workload of being open daily

In addition to a warm, dry place to get in out of the weather, this shelter also gives those living on the streets the chance to dry out their clothing and put a warm meal in their stomach. Unlike some other facilities such as the Salvation Army, this shelter accepts people who may be intoxicated or otherwise impaired to come in out of the weather.

Providing this type of help to people with drug or alcohol problems is not without it's challenges and those seeking to alleviate the suffering of others are to be commended.