City of Powell River councillors were provided an overview of Lift Community Services’ community programming.
At the June 17 committee of the whole meeting, Lift executive director Kim Markel highlighted activities in immigrant services, the emergency shelter closure, the new Community Resource Centre and Family Place, and opportunities moving forward.
“There has been a lot of activity happening with Lift,” said Markel. “I am here to give an update on our programs and services.”
Regarding immigrant services, Markel said Lift lost its federal funding for immigrant services this year. The federal funding comprised 85 per cent of Lift’s budget for immigrant services, according to Markel.
“At the beginning of the fiscal year, we, unfortunately, had to lay off three out of our four staff and move out of the welcome centre at Crossroads Village,” said Markel. “We were lucky enough to maintain one of our senior staff members and all our volunteers, and we have been offering limited services in the community out of the library. We are looking forward to moving the program into our Community Resource Centre (CRC) when we have full occupancy of the site.
“We also were very fortunate that the Multicultural and Immigrant Services Association, which is located on Vancouver Island, was able to secure ongoing federal funding for three years, and through partnership with Lift, we were able to hire a local employee in qathet for three days a week to keep our services closer to home.”
Markel said Lift launched the Point In Time homeless count on March 7, which was the follow-up to the community’s first ever homelessness count in 2023. She said Lift looks forward to being able to share the results in the fall when the results are released.
“We have the sense that we did not see as many people as we have in previous years; there was a significant number of individuals who participated in the 2023 count who adamantly declined to participate this time,” said Markel. “Some of that may have been due to disruptions that were happening. We had already moved our overdose prevention site and our emergency shelter was weeks away from closing. We closed the emergency shelter in March and displaced those staff who had been providing that essential service in our community.
“I look forward to continued conversations with BC Housing and the city about a new temporary location. We definitely felt the impact and the community has felt the impact in the development of multiple small encampments, including those located on both city and regional district property.”
Markel said Lift has been connecting with business neighbours, and although there is less impact being felt by the businesses that used to be CRC’s neighbours, the broader community seems to be feeling more impact around congregation and public substance use.
“With the closure of our shelter, we did receive temporary funding from BC Housing to launch a homelessness outreach team, and this team has already seen more than 40 unique individuals who are living outside within the city core,” said Markel. “We were also able to up-staff at supportive housing to better address some of the increased traffic we are seeing.”
Markel said the CRC and Family Place have been planning a move for months into Crossroads Village. She said Lift was able to open the doors for the centre in May after months of renovations, with occupancy limited to 30 people.
“We’re currently working with property owners, city staff and legal supports to continue the renovations that are needed to receive full occupancy status at that site,” said Markel. “At that time, we look forward to moving Family Place into our Community Resource Centre. There is much gratitude for the space at the Town Centre mall while we do the renovations.”
Markel said Lift continues to focus on ongoing opportunities for collaboration and partnerships and is working closely with nonprofit organizations, provincial funders, community groups and members, to collectively try to break down the stigma of homelessness, and trying to come up with some tactics to support those people who are struggling.
“What I would leave everyone with is focusing on care of the community,” said Markel. “We are seeing a lot of people in self-preservation mode, struggling. We’re just trying to make sure that the work we do is done from a spirit of caring for everyone in qathet.”
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