Homeless needs continue past winter says shelter

A winter shelter for West Kelowna’s homeless has closed for the season but there’s still a need to help the city’s street population, council will hear tomorrow.

Directors of the West Kelowna Shelter Society will tomorrow appeal for a further $10,000 to provide food, clothing, and blankets to the city's homeless.

“The funding would allow us to pay a co-ordinator (outreach worker), top up our donations of food and blankets when needed, and continue to build a relationship with this sector of our community,” says society representative Rosemay Weighhill.

Since the shelter closed for the season on March 31, a few of West Kelowna’s homeless have begun staying overnight at the Gospel Mission in downtown Kelowna, Weighill says.

“But for most, when the shelter closes, they have no idea where they will sleep or find food,” Weighill says.

The requested $10,000, she says, will help shelter volunteers at least provide some “floating support” to the city’s homeless and marginalized population.

The funds would also help provide the homeless with free hot lunches on the four days a week when a lunch program offered by the Westbank United Church is not in operation.

Those lunches, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, draw as many as 80 people.

When the 25-bed overnight shelter, run out of a Westbank church, was in operation, it was at capacity on the coldest nights.

As many as 40 people sometimes came in for a hot evening meal, and they were given free bus tickets to Kelowna to go to the Gospel Mission on Leon Avenue if the shelter was at capacity.

In December, council approved a $20,000 grant to the shelter society, with an immediate payout of $10,000.

The remaining $10,000 was to be awarded when a permanent daytime shelter was established, but those efforts are still some ways off from succeeding. Citing the pressing need to continue services to the homeless, shelter directors are now asking for that remaining $10,000 to be released earlier than planned.