Sechelt emergency shelter bursting at seams
Sechelt’s emergency cold weather shelter has been filled most nights recently, but people are packed in so tight that some are choosing to sleep outdoors instead.
“We haven’t turned anyone away,” shelter manager Alicia Ladouceur said. “But people are turning themselves away when they see the conditions. They can’t handle it. It’s physically and mentally exhausting.”
Some sleep in their cars at the St. Hilda’s Anglican Church where the shelter is located or at a nearby beach.
Others camp in the woods, and a handful have hiding places under local buildings.
“That’s pretty bad in this weather,” Ladouceur said.
Adding to the sense of crisis, this is the last season the church will host the emergency shelter, the facility itself becoming homeless.
“We are looking for a bigger space. (Our funding agency) B.C. Housing is willing to support a bigger space, but we can’t find anything,” Ladouceur said.
“St. Hilda’s has been great, providing this space for free for several years, but this is the last year they can do it.”
The one-room sleeping area in the church annex can take 12 people comfortably, with blankets and mats on the floor. Since opening for the season in mid-October, the shelter routinely fills to its capacity of 15 people, but some nights as many as 20 bed down.
“When it’s crowded at the shelter, if you turn over, you are on the next guy’s bed,” said Black Mike, an occasional shelter client. “They really need more space.”
Volunteers who bring food for the first time will stop at the door because they don’t know where to step, Ladouceur said. “With 20 people in here, all the beds are touching.”
The shelter has about 30 regulars and several dozen occasional users, but Ladouceur estimates the homeless community in Sechelt, Gibsons and Roberts Creek conservatively at more than 100.
The mostly male clients are up and out at 7 a.m. Those who have a doctor’s note confirming a mental illness can shower, do laundry, get a meal and spend time indoors at the well-appointed Arrowhead Centre about two blocks away.
The rest either wander around town with their backpacks or, like the recently homeless Jason, seek warmth at the public library.
Jason worked as a cook on the Sunshine Coast for eight years and recently tried to make the move to Vancouver.
“I missed a shift after my girlfriend broke up with me and I got fired,” he said. “I came back to the Sunshine Coast to live, but because I was fired I was denied welfare for 60 days.”
Jason has spent the last five nights in the shelter and his days looking for work. But even that might not be enough in a tight and pricey rental market.
“I don’t know how you pay for a $1,000 apartment on minimum wage,” he said.
Homeless people with a mental illness can get assistance with financial and medical issues at the Arrowhead Centre. Staff also help find housing, at least in theory, manager Carey Rumba said.
“It’s almost impossible,” he said. “We can help them look at the newspaper and Craigslist and teach them how to talk to landlords, but there is no housing. There are 40 to 50 people applying for one basement suite.”