Society outlines extreme weather shelter in City of Powell River

Lift Community Services (Lift) non-profit society has outlined the benefit of what the temporary use permit to operate an extreme weather response shelter this winter will be.

Lift director of programs Kim Markel said the temporary shelter will offer a dry, warm place to sleep, and hot food for people experiencing homelessness, on nights when the weather makes it cold, wet and dangerous to sleep outside. City of Powell River Council, at its January 2 special meeting, granted the temporary use permit for the shelter.

“After several weeks of uncertainty, we are grateful that this permit has now been approved, enabling us to provide more shelter as needed for up to 20 additional community members during extreme weather,” state Markel in a media release. “When required during extreme weather, including rain and snow, extreme cold and high winds, we’ll be able to keep people without shelter off of neighbouring properties, and out of the wet and cold.”

The extreme weather response program is a provincially funded initiative that supports community service organizations to provide additional temporary emergency shelter spaces during periods of extreme winter weather, which threaten the health and safety of individuals experiencing homelessness, the release stated. The program is designed to provide time-limited, weather responsive, temporary shelter spaces in communities where there is not sufficient emergency shelter bed capacity during extreme weather conditions.

The release stated that the city’s permit will allow for the use of Lift’s Community Resource Centre at 4752 Joyce Avenue as a temporary overnight shelter. It will run on an as-needed basis from 8 pm to 8 am on nights where there is extreme weather as indicated by precipitation amounts, temperature or wind speed. The release stated that there will be 20 cots available on a first-come first-served basis. Lift is hiring casual staff to support overnight guests and is seeking volunteers to help with preparing warm food on those nights.

Both the current emergency shelter and the temporary extreme weather shelter are operated by Lift under temporary use permits (TUPs) issued by the city, the release stated. TUPs allow for the temporary use of commercial, industrial and civic zones for other uses.

“While very grateful for the support provided by the city and BC Housing to open an extreme weather shelter, we all know that shelters are not a substitute for permanent housing,” stated Markel. “The long-term answer to homelessness must be permanent housing – including subsidized and supportive housing – so that everyone can have a home where they can feel comfortable and safe and warm.”

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