Nanaimo’s shelter and homelessness strategies need improvement, critics say
Extreme weather shelters in B.C. provide extra emergency shelter space during periods of winter weather when the health and safety of homeless individuals is threatened. Nanaimo’s low-barrier extreme weather shelter was opened earlier this year than in past due to changed weather criteria. Despite the relaxed guidelines, one advocate wants to see a wet-weather shelter that is open more often. Community activist Wallace Malay has been lobbying the City of Nanaimo for a shelter that is open more often—or all winter long. He’s uploading videos to YouTube and circulating emails calling for a change in approach.
The current chair of Nanaimo 7-10 Club and former candidate for city councillor Gordon Fuller has also expressed concerns about what he says are the “failings” of Nanaimo’s homelessness strategy—including concerns about the extreme weather shelter.
The City of Nanaimo decides what conditions warrant an “extreme weather alert,” when to open local extreme weather shelters, and how many spaces to make available on any given night. Nanaimo’s extreme weather shelter is operated by the First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo.
We’re joined in the studio by Wallace Malay and Gordon Fuller.
