It seems words can indicate pivotal differences among shelters for homeless people during British Columbia winters
British Columbia’s Extreme Weather Response program enables communities to temporarily increase emergency shelter capacity during extreme weather conditions that threaten the safety and health of individuals and families who are homeless. The program funds time-limited, temporary shelter beds needed during extreme weather conditions from approximately November 1st to March 31st.
But the differences among the various types of homeless shelters in the province—and the programs that fund them—can create challenges for people who simply need shelter that they can depend on. For example, there are key differences between emergency shelters and extreme weather response shelters. Emergency shelters provide people who are homeless with shelter, food, and access to support services. They operate all year round with the majority running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Extreme weather response shelters provide temporary spaces made available to people who are homeless during situations where sleeping outside might threaten their health and safety. An Extreme Weather Response is activated by the local community as per their Extreme Weather Response plan.
Each community participating in the Extreme Weather Response program must develop and submit an Extreme Weather Response Plan—which is individualized according to perceived local needs and situations. Here is where things can get problematic.
Reports from Vancouver and Victoria
Irene Jaakson, Vancouver’s extreme weather coordinator, ordered additional shelter beds opened on January 10, 2013, when temperatures dipped below freezing, according to the Vancouver Sun. But she told the newspaper that “emergency shelters are not a sustainable way to manage this critical situation of homelessness.” Advocates and others working with the problem of homelessness in Vancouver told the Vancouver Sun about a range of problems associated with the temporary nature of so-called temporary “emergency” shelters.
Getting people into the shelters is a challenge:
Getting people off the street and into the emergency shelters is part of the challenge. The EWA (emergency-weather alert) shelters are in neighbourhood houses, places of worship and community outreach centres. “As soon as the EWA is announced, police, ambulance workers, firefighters and volunteers get the word out but by the time some of the homeless find out, the alert is over,” said Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang. “They are temporary, and it takes time to get folks there.” (Vancouver Sun)
Shelters can fill up to capacity, leaving people sitting and waiting for other options:
Vancouver’s four so-called HEAT shelters, which operate in the coldest six months of the year, have been at their full capacity of 160 people since two days after they opened in early December. Most nights, they can’t find room for an average of 24 people, said Sean Spear, associate director of Raincity Housing.
No one is turned away if they show up at a HEAT shelter, said Spear. “We’ll bring them inside, get them warm, give them a meal and our staff help them try to find another shelter bed.” (Vancouver Sun)
Vancouver organizers and advocates point out another particular problem for homeless people who turn up at shelters with possessions (often stored in shopping carts) and pets—they say that there is a lack of emergency shelters for “homeless people who want to keep carts of worldly possessions or a pet with them.”
However, offering stable (i.e. predictable and ongoing) sleeping spaces to homeless people in the cold weather shelters can bring real benefits:
HEAT shelters offer secured mat space, meals and “low-barrier” access: If you’ve got a pet or a shopping cart, you can bring it in. The availability of a reserved mat and the 24-hour access have helped make HEAT shelters an important factor in stabilizing those in need of housing, said Jang.
“Last year, we had 40 people move into permanent residences from HEAT shelters,” said Jang. “In HEAT, they have time to get their health together, they get to eat and sleep, they gain weight … they provide that moment in time to stabilize someone. What’s missing is permanent housing.” (Vancouver Sun)
One of the more obvious—and difficult—aspects of temporary shelters offered during winter months are the criteria that must be met before a shelter is opened. Sometimes, almost unbelievably, a difference of one degree can mean the difference between open and closed shelters. An article in Victoria’s Times Colonist reported on December 31, 2012:
The City of Vancouver has issued an extreme weather alert, freeing shelter beds for the homeless in the event temperatures drop below zero this week. The alert has activated emergency shelters citywide as well as bringing into effect measures authorized by the Assistance to Shelter Act, which enables police to direct homeless and other at-risk individuals to shelter facilities.
No similar alert has been issued in Victoria, where Environment Canada was forecasting a low of 1 Celsius overnight Sunday. As of Sunday evening, the agency’s seven-day forecast for the Victoria did not foresee the temperature dropping below zero, although lows of 1 C are forecast for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Victoria enacts its extreme weather response plan when conditions are deemed severe enough to threaten the life or health of people living on the street.
An emergency co-ordinator will enact the plan when temperatures reach –2 C or temperatures are near freezing and there is enough rainfall making it impossible for homeless people to stay dry. Such conditions as sleet, freezing rain, snow accumulation and sustained high winds are also taken into account. (Times Colonist)
Reports from Nanaimo
The Nanaimo News Bulletin reported on September 2, 2012, that organizers of the city’s only full-time cold weather shelter were overwhelmed during the winter of 2011-2012—and as a result would be operating during the winter of 2012-2013 as a part-time (i.e. as needed) “extreme weather shelter”:
Last winter, the 24-bed shelter hosted 18 to 25 people nightly, a demand that Arthur Lionel, chairman of the weather shelter task force for the (First Unitarian) Fellowship, said taxed volunteers and the program to their limits, if not beyond.
“There were too many people. When we were open every night we were overwhelmed every night,” said Lionel. “There are people who would like us to be open every night no matter what the weather but we are not interested in that. We are interested in providing an opportunity for homeless people to get taken care of when the weather is extreme.” (Nanaimo News Bulletin)
As winter weather set in and the First Unitarian Fellowship’s shelter opened its doors for the first time, half of the available beds remained empty. Shelter coordinator Kevan Griffiths told the Nanaimo Daily News that it was good news:
Kevan Griffith, coordinator for the extreme weather shelter, says there will always be transient people looking for shelter, but many of the chronic homeless are “no longer coming.”
He said he is surprised at the numbers this year, but glad and believes it could forecast a trend. A lot of the regular clients now housed at the Wesley Street project or through a new apartment pilot program of the John Howard Society and the Nanaimo Working Group of Homelessness.
“We are seeing low numbers of shelter users everywhere . . . and the RCMP tell me they are seeing less people on the street,” Griffith said. “There has been a big push to get homeless people off the street . . . and I think we are starting to see the impact of that collective effort.” (Nanaimo Daily News)
Wallace Malay, an artist and social justice advocate from Nanaimo, has been pushing for a return to winter shelter arrangements for homeless people in the city. The use of “emergency shelter” approaches are too limiting, Wallace and other advocates say, and they don’t meet the real needs of people without housing who live on the streets.
We’re joined in the studio by social justice advocate Wallace Malay and City of Nanaimo social planner John Horn. We also speak with advocate and 7-10 Club spokesperson Gord Fuller. Other guests TBA.
468_march_28_2013_sm Left click to listen; right click to save.
RELATED | B.C. Housing: Extreme weather response | Nanaimo News Bulletin: Fellowship opts for extreme weather shelter (Sept. 2, 2012) | Nanaimo Daily News: Fewer homeless people seeking cold-weather shelter in Nanaimo (Nov. 15, 2012) | Times Colonist: Unlike Vancouver, no extreme weather alert for homeless in Victoria (Dec. 30, 2012) | Vancouver Sun: Vancouver emergency shelters no solution to crisis: critics (Jan. 13, 2013) |
video
Wallace Malay and Kevan Griffith speak with the Shaw TV Central Island program go! Island
