Advocates for the homeless on the Sunshine Coast are trying to set up a cold weather shelter that will be open every night from the beginning of November to the end of March.
In a letter seeking support from the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD), the Sunshine Coast homelessness advisory council said the five-month shelter program would be a needed improvement over the current extreme weather emergency shelter (EWES), which opens only when temperatures drop below zero. A co-op shelter started last year in the EWES site proved unviable due to volunteer burnout, advisory council member Brenda Wilkinson said in the letter to SCRD board chair Garry Nohr.
"The need for a cold weather shelter exists in our community," Wilkinson wrote. "The average number of people staying each night at the co-op shelter was between two and four. We also saw an increase in the EWES stays in the 2012/13 shelter season."
Wilkinson said the advisory council - an umbrella group of social agencies and volunteer organizations on the Coast -has enough money to fund the shelter for about three months during the winter, based on having one paid staff position and volunteers on call.
The letter asked the SCRD to back the advisory council's request to BC Housing for top-up funding to cover the full five months of operation.
"We also feel that providing two paid staff members in the overnight position would create a much safer environment for all," Wilkinson added.
Presenting the request to the SCRD's community services committee on July 11, Wilkinson said a letter of support "would be very beneficial to us," as the deadline to apply for funding from BC Housing is the end of August.
Similar requests were sent to the District of Sechelt and Town of Gibsons, she said.
Gibsons alternate director Lee Ann Johnson, who represents the Town on the advisory council, urged the board to go beyond simply sending a letter of support, and try to set up a meeting with Deputy Premier Rich Coleman, minister responsible for housing, at the fall Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention.
The committee agreed to formally request a meeting with Coleman, and the motion was adopted that evening at the regular board meeting.
A reliable cold weather shelter is long overdue for the Coast, Johnson said.
"Compared to everywhere else in B.C., it's outrageous that we don't have one," she said.
In her letter, Wilkinson said the advisory council has received strong community support, with funding provided by the SCRD, the Town of Gibsons, the District of Sechelt, the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation and private donors. In-kind donations through the Sunshine Coast Rotary Club-Sechelt are improving the outbuilding of St. Hilda's Anglican Church to better facilitate the shelter project, she said.
The cold weather drop-in program, meanwhile, provided a dinner to the homeless seven nights a week from early December 2012 to the end of March 2013.
Most of the service clubs and church groups that provided in-kind donations for the meal program have renewed their commitment for the coming winter, Wilkinson said. Last year their involvement represented 111 dinners, equaling almost $8,000 in volunteer work.
"We expect more this year as we add on the month of November," she said.
