The Coast's extreme weather emergency shelter opened its doors last Friday night and has since remained open during freezing temperatures, providing a warm, dry place to sleep during the snowstorm.
The shelter, in Arrowhead Centre's basement in Sechelt, is open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. when the temperature dips below zero degrees. From Friday (Nov. 24) to Wednesday, the shelter had housed between two to five people a night, according to shelter co-ordinator Ron LeBlanc. The shelter has space to sleep 10, but with extra space on the couch and floor, he noted they would not turn people away.
The shelter has been flooded with donations of bedding and are still in need of nearly-new warm clothing - scarves, mitts, toques, jackets, socks and especially winter boots - as well as personal hygiene products.Some visitors to the shelter came to pick up tarps, blankets and other supplies, opting to stay at their space outside, mostly in the bush.
"A lot of these people are up in higher elevations and choose to come down once a month," LeBlanc said. He hasn't heard any reports of frostbite this year, but he looks back to two years ago when an Egmont man had frostbite and lost his legs from the knees down.
"That was when I decided to take the initiative to get a shelter in place," LeBlanc recalled.
Mostly the people coming to the shelter are in transition and in need of immediate housing. Because of the power outages cutting heat to some homes, the shelter had a call from a Gibsons family trying to get to the shelter. But they were unable to make it to Sechelt by transit or taxi because of the road conditions. Another person made it to the shelter on foot from Davis Bay.
LeBlanc asks that anyone trying to get to the shelter call during the day to arrange transportation. The shelter's budget from BC Housing includes a transportation portion for buses and taxis. In addition, Sunshine Coast Transit donated books of transit tickets to the shelter.
Other notable donors have included the Rotary Club of Sechelt providing bedding, tarps and cleaning out a store's supply of heated gloves. Starbucks has donated baked goods and the Sechelt Food Bank has dropped off food. Pharmasave and Home Hardware have also pitched in with donations. LeBlanc especially wishes to thank Coast Copy Centre for printing the posters that are posted throughout the community letting people know the shelter is open. The community at large has dropped off donations to the shelter. LeBlanc said they received between 15 to 20 garbage bags of clothes in the past couple weeks.
"We've had a great community response," he said.
LeBlanc and one other staff member work at the shelter at night. The shelter is funded to open 30 nights this winter. The first two nights it opened this season were Oct. 30 and 31.
Arrowhead is located at 5782 Cowrie St. To arrange for pick up or drop off of donations, call 604-885-0989 from Monday through Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 604-741-2547 after 6 p.m.
