Coast’s only homeless shelter to stay open

Thanks to the generosity of St. Hilda’s Anglican Church in Sechelt, the Sunshine Coast’s only homeless shelter will remain open until the end of October, when it’s hoped a new, larger location will be secured.

Historically, the shelter has closed in May and reopened in November, but BC Housing was willing to continue funding RainCity staff at the shelter if St. Hilda’s could continue to offer their annex building for nightly use, according to Aaron Munro with RainCity.

The annex building isn’t large enough to house everyone who needs to access the shelter some nights, which is why the homeless outreach advisory committee has been seeking a larger space and more funding from BC Housing, but it’s able to accommodate up to 15 people per night.

Knowing the need and with the hope of a new shelter space being secured by the fall, the membership of St. Hilda’s Anglican Church recently voted in favour of allowing RainCity to continue using their building for the interim.

“St. Hilda’s has made a discretionary extension to allow the shelter to operate in the annex until Oct. 31, 2017,” said St. Hilda’s Rev. Clarence Li, noting it’s hoped at that time a new shelter will “become operational based on a commitment made by BC Housing.”

Munro added, “In the event that a new interim shelter is not operational by this date, RainCity will notify St. Hilda’s at least 30 days in advance with an update on RainCity’s plan for the 2017-18 winter season before moving forward. We currently do not have firm dates for an interim shelter to replace the temporary shelter at St. Hilda’s, but we are working closely with BC Housing on a solution.”

Munro said RainCity is “pretty excited” about the extension granted by St. Hilda’s that will allow the organization to continue serving the homeless population on the Coast, noting 66 individuals have accessed the shelter since November.

“What we’re really excited about is that the extension allows us to continue to engage people experiencing homelessness and offer a safe place for them to sleep, eat food and get outreach to permanent housing, and we’ve been doing a lot of clinical referrals to Vancouver Coastal Health. So we’re pretty excited and very, very thankful to the congregation,” Munro said.

Munro said RainCity’s outreach program, which works alongside the shelter program, has helped 21 homeless people find housing since November.