With the cold weather season approaching, Our Place has opened an overnight shelter at First Metropolitan United Church to provide a temporary haven for the region’s most vulnerable residents.
“Every winter it breaks our hearts when we close our doors in the evening, leaving vulnerable people with so few places to go,” said Don Evans, executive director of Our Place Society. The group’s Pandora Avenue centre provides meals and drop-in services during the day, as well as 45 units of transitional housing, but it offers overnight shelter only during extreme winter weather.
The new shelter, which will provide sleeping mats for up to 40 people, opened Oct. 15 with about $148,000 in provincial government funding, Evans said. It is located at 932 Balmoral Rd., at Quadra Street, and will run until March 31, 2016.
In addition to accommodating individuals, the shelter will also accept couples and individuals with pets — groups that often have a difficult time finding a safe and dry place to sleep.
The objective, Evans said, was to remove as many barriers to receiving shelter as possible.
“People don’t want to be separated from their partners or pets,” he said. “They simply want to be indoors and out of the cold.”
With limited options for Victoria’s most needy citizens available, the church was happy to be able to continue its tradition of providing assistance, said Clarice Dillman, the church council’s co-chairwoman.
“First Met has a successful 17-year history of providing shelter and comfort to vulnerable people in our community,” she said.
Unlike many shelters that open in the winter, this one will be open every night.
“What makes this different [from an extreme weather alert emergency shelter] is that it operates seven days a week, opening at 7:30 in the evening,” said Grant McKenzie, Our Place’s communications director. Breakfast is served at Our Place every morning at 7.
Extra mats become available at local shelters and drop-in centres when the provincial government issues an extreme weather alert — triggered by high wind, rain, snow or sub-zero temperatures — McKenzie said.
Our Place Society’s 919 Pandora Ave. community centre, for instance, can provide 50 extra mats for people in its downstairs recreational area, he said.
“We are not typically an overnight shelter, but if the province announces a Tier 2 extreme weather alert and feels more people are being left out, we can do this,” McKenzie said.
Rich Coleman, B.C. Minister Responsible for Housing, said the government works with communities and non-profit organizations each winter to ensure additional shelter space is available.
“Funding for these spaces is part of the almost $12 million we invest in the Victoria area each year to provide emergency shelter spaces, subsidized units and rent supplements for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness,” he said.
Other temporary housing options include:
• Out of the Rain Night Shelter, operated by Beacon Community Services at various locations;
• The Salvation Army’s Addictions and Rehabilitation Centre, 525 Johnson St.
• Victoria Cool Aid Society’s Rock Bay Landing, 535 Ellice St.,
• Next Steps, 2317 Dowler Place
• Sandy Merriman House, 809 Burdett Ave.
