Powell River’s extreme weather shelter is open for its second winter. Although numbers utilizing the service remain small, according to Salvation Army community ministries coordinator Kerrin Fraser, it is still a significant increase from a year ago.
“Last year, we only had one gentleman and we were open only eight nights during that really bad snowstorm,” said Fraser.
So far for the 2017/2018 winter period, the shelter has been open 20 nights and had occupants for eight. One man stayed seven nights and another man and woman stayed for one.
In order to open the shelter, there is a six-condition activation protocol, which includes temperatures near zero with rainfall that makes staying dry a challenge, sleet or freezing rain, snow accumulation, sustained high winds and temperatures below -2 degrees Celsius.
“The option is definitely there for us to be open," said Fraser. "The activation starts on November 1 and it can be activated up until March 1."
The extreme weather shelter was the result of work started by City of Powell River councillor Maggie Hathaway in 2016.
“I started an affordable housing group, and one of the things we identified fairly early on was the need for an extreme weather shelter,” said Hathaway. “We were starting to see people living on the streets, which we’d never seen before.”
Salvation Army stepped up and was willing to provide the space and School District 47 and BC Ambulance Service provided blankets and mats, said Hathaway.
Councillor Rob Southcott said he believes the need is relatively new to the region.
“My impression is that marginalized populations have been very well looked after by public health here over the years,” said Southcott. “Homelessness has become a visible problem only in the past two years here.”
It has been difficult to come up with actual numbers of homeless people in the area for a number of reasons, according to Hathaway.
“It’s a really difficult thing to pull off because people don’t want to be counted,” she said. “There are people out there who we could effectively call homeless because they just go from friend to friend, but they haven’t been on the streets."
PREP Society executive director Stuart Clark said while concrete numbers have not been established, the need definitely has.
“We know when we look at the waiting lists of people trying to get into affordable housing in this community it’s a significant number of people,” said Clark. “It’s over 50 families that are currently in housing we would say is inadequate to them.”
Clark said part of the solution is bringing what is known as “supported housing” to the region.
Supported housing, also known as transitional housing, is staffed modular homes that help homeless people transition to more stable living situations.
“We’re thinking we need at least 40 units,” said Clark. “Another part of the strategy here is to keep building all types of housing.”
Real estate and rental markets in Powell River are extremely tight with available rentals currently at less than one per cent.
Hathaway said people can get involved by participating in the housing round table, which is open to the public.
“It is supported by the City of Powell River and made up of players from across the community,” said Clark.
For those interested, contact Hathaway at the city or Clark at PREP Society.
