Nanaimo’s cold weather shelter could get up to $45,000 from the municipality as it prepares to open its doors this season.
During a finance and audit committee meeting last week, Nanaimo council members supported funding the shelter of the First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo.
The 24-bed shelter on Townsite Road gives the city’s homeless an escape from the chill of the rain and wind, offering beds, laundry and meals. Last year, it provided 4,242 bed nights with 237 people, an increase of 20 per cent over the previous season, a staff report shows.
The municipality gave it $45,000 in 2016, and received $10,000 when more nights than anticipated were covered by B.C. Housing. Nanaimo gets invoiced for cold, wet winter nights between November and March that aren’t covered by the province, which funds extreme weather evenings. The organization is looking for the same amount of money this season.
Lois Peterson, executive director of the Unitarian shelter, told council members that a significant part of her group’s work will be in pursuing additional and new funding sources and to increase the donor funding rate by 25 per cent.
“We often talk about marginalized people as having fallen through the cracks; our goal at the Unitarian shelter is to ensure the homeless of our city have somewhere safe to fall during the hardest months of the year when the streets are cold, wet, inhospitable and unsafe,” she said.
Council members unanimously supported giving up to $45,000 to the shelter. A recommendation will be made at a future council meeting.