Funding from Island Health will help pay for Nanaimo’s warming shelters operations.
At a council meeting Dec. 18, it was announced that the city has entered into a funding partnership with Island Health, which has ponied up $250,000 to help cover costs for warming shelters set up by Risebridge Society at 520 Prideaux St., Island Crisis Care Society at 2025 Bowen Rd., and the 7-10 Club at 5 Victoria Rd.
“Island Health has announced the very generous funding of the three warming sites and has provided $250,000 of funding to the city so that we can address any service gaps … specifically in the area of overdose incidents and to provide supports that would mitigate any impacts in the adjacent neighbourhoods,” said Dave LaBerge, the city’s director of public safety.
Christy Wood, manager of social planning at the city, said the city and social service partners are reaching out to residents and businesses operating within 100 metres of the warming centres to provide them with contact information and information about the services being provided.
Wood said Risebridge is reporting that since its warming centre opened Nov. 14, it has been operating at or near capacity.
“They’re reporting that there are safety and security challenges due to the substance use and the overdose incidents that are occurring on site,” Wood said. “Risebridge … have reached out to Island Health requesting funding for additional staffing to address these issues … The opening of the additional warming centres, I believe, will reduce demand and challenges experienced at the Risebridge warming centre and will provide more options for unsheltered people to access other warming centre services.”
Coun. Hilary Eastmure asked if there will be consultation with warming centre staff to determine what their needs are before the Island Health money is distributed. Wood said the city is looking at successes Risebridge has had with its peer support program and is looking to possibly work with other agencies that could also provide peer support and other options, including using existing assets within the city, such as the community safety officers, to help support warming centre staff.
“I think what we really need from them is their personal and the health expertise that they bring to this…” Eastmure said. “What I was hearing from the warming centres was that they need the health support and the trained personnel, because they have people with wounds and dealing with issues that are not going to be addressed by the presence of more security and more community safety officers … As great as they may be at their jobs, it’s not a proactive solution on this.”
Coun. Erin Hemmens asked for assurance that the Island Health funding will be “distributed equitably” among the warming centre providers, and also wanted to know if staff time and resources would be shared among the centres.
“In my conversations with the three different operators, they may identify different needs and so we’re not really sure what that input would look like,” Wood said.
Hemmens replied that she’s “going to watch this one closely.”