Westside shelter on track
BC Housing says emergency shelter in West Kelowna will open by end of month
An emergency shelter for West Kelowna’s homeless population will open by the end of January.
The 40-bed facility, on Stevens Road just east of the Westlake Road intersection, is now being prepared by workers. It’s being fashioned from four portable trailers that have been moved onto the vacant site.
“Work is underway to make them operational and staff are being trained,” BC Housing spokesman Matthew Borghese wrote Thursday in an email.
“The shelter is still on track to open by the end of the month. The only delays to this project have been related to the arrival of the trailers,” Borghese wrote.
West Kelowna city council approved the shelter at a meeting in early December. At the meeting, BC Housing manager Ann Howard suggested the need was critical, and that homeless people might die if they did not have a warm place to sleep this winter.
Nighttime temperatures fell below -18 C on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
A media report on Tuesday suggested the owner of the private property was having second thoughts about providing the land for the shelter and that was one reason the facility had not opened sooner.
But Borghese wrote in his email that BC Housing had a signed lease agreement with the private property owner when Howard made her presentation to council.
“The shelter is temporary and was identified in order to provide 40 people experiencing homelessness a safe, warm place to stay during the coldest months of the year,” Borghese wrote. “The shelter will close on March 31, 2020.”
As well as the 40-bed shelter on Stevens Road, BC Housing has provided funding for two 40bed winter shelters in downtown Kelowna.