Reports of Nanaimo’s healthy economy may be partly behind the sudden influx seen by agencies

The number of homeless people using Nanaimo emergency shelters is higher and came earlier than usual during the summer.

Some people—men in particular—are being turned away at Nanaimo’s two emergency homeless shelters, in what social workers say is the busiest summer in recent memory.

Precise numbers are unavailable, but the Salvation Army has operated the New Hope Shelter at near capacity since May, and Samaritan House, for women, is also above normal levels.

More transients typically arrive in summer, but never so early.  “Normally we get a lot in August,” said Rob Anderson, Salvation Army community services director. “It seems to have started a little earlier this year.”

In June, the shelter turned away 45 men and operated steadily at “over 95 per cent full,” Anderson said.  Read the rest of this story at Nanaimo Daily News…