A trunkload of winter clothing was delivered to the Gospel Mission homeless shelter by Skylar Byrt and Tiffany Cutting on Monday morning due to blizzard-like conditions in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Cutting cited “blankets, clothes…scarves, toques, pillows.”
Numerous homeless people are sleeping outside and in tents in Kelowna because there are no winter facilities secured and homeless shelters are at full.
Byrt stated, “I just think of everyone else who is freezing and outside while I’m warm at home.”
It’s terrible; it makes me feel nauseous. It genuinely disgusts me.
In Penticton or Vernon, the situation is not much better.
Approximately 100 people live outside in Vernon, and 80 or so do so in Penticton, according to service providers.
“Life and death are at stake.
It is, and as a result, our outreach team leaves every morning to serve warm breakfast to individuals who are seeking refuge outside. As part of their duties, they also check to see if everyone survived the night unharmed, according to Carmen Rempel, executive director of the Gospel Mission.
BC Housing and the City of Kelowna have not yet found a location to serve as a temporary winter shelter, despite the fact that the need for one is growing more urgent by the hour.
There is an immediate need to get people inside, and discussions and frantic searching for a warming shelter is going on behind the scenes, according to Rempel.
However, in practise, operators are very severely overworked.
Even if a location is located and secured, staffing it in light of the labour scarcity offers a completely other difficulty, according to Rempel.
Rempel questioned, “Even if we were to find a location, who’s going to run it?
I can only speak for the Gospel Mission when I say that we are unable to take on another winter shelter this year.
Due to a lack of staff, the Gospel Mission has only been able to open 30 of the 60 beds at the Bay Avenue shelter since it opened last month.
The lack of suitable sites for a shelter combined with the staffing crunch means there is a good possibility of a winter shelter not opening this year at all.
It’s definitely feasible, Rempel declared.
BC Housing said last week that it is closely collaborating with the City of Kelowna to find a suitable place for an emergency shelter, but the deputy mayor of the city says things don’t seem hopeful.
The forecast is currently not favourable, according to Kelowna deputy mayor Loyal Wooldridge. This should not come as a surprise considering the fact that we struggle to staff our mat programmes and emergency shelters every year, which is currently one of our biggest issues.
Wooldridge stated that amid the severe weather, hotel rooms might be a possibility.
He remarked, “We will be asking our partners to look at hotel sites. “We are aware that it was successful during Covid. ”
Rempel said if anyone wishes to give winter clothing in the interim.
Right now, sleeping bags are desperately needed, she said. “So if people want to want to drop off sleeping bags and blankets, we will get them to where they need to go. ”.
The chances of a winter shelter opening in Kelowna, British Columbia, this year are poor.
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