By Tom Mark

Vernon Shelters Cramped By Cold & Snow

Dec 29, 2017 | 9:42 AM

The cold weather and now all the snow has put extra pressure on shelters in the city.

Kelly Fehr with the John Howard Society says its shelters have been stretched to the max.

“Howard House typically has 55 individual staying there and because if the cold weather and extra funding by BC Housing we’re up to 75 and even 80 at night at times. Gateway, we’re seeing a good 38 people there every night also.”

That’s almost double capacity.

The extra load forced the society to put a call in to BC Housing for more mats.

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“Luckily, BC Housing just shipped us up some, which is great because normally we have to buy them. They’ve come to the table and bought some for us. At the moment, we’re good with mats but we are quickly running out of space if we start seeing more people coming.”

He says he knows there are people out there still, but the society’s outreach workers are doing what they can to get those people inside.

More staff have had to be added to relieve some of the pressures and the public has been very supportive.

“The public has been absolutely amazing this year. especially the faith community. Both the Lutheran Church and the Trinity United Church has been bringing us donations of food, cooking supplies for our Blair Apartments, uh, blankets.”

Fehr says the crunch shows just how much new shelter space coming in March will help.

“Oh, we’re very excited about the new shelter. We’re anticipating it’s going to open up in March. It’s going to be called Our Place Shelter. We’ll be able to get all the extra people off the floor and into beds and provide them the support they really need.”

A 45 bed shelter will be added to Howard House.

Later in the year a 53 bed supportive housing unit will be set up on land BC Housing owns at 27th Avenue and 35th street.

by Tom Mark