Winter shelter operator seeks one-year extension
BC Housing wants to keep a winter shelter open in downtown Penticton for another year.
City council at its meeting Tuesday will consider the request to issue a new temporary use permit that would allow the 42-bed shelter in the former Victory Church site at 352 Winnipeg St. to open again next winter and stay in operation through March 2022.
Its current temporary-use permit, which sparked heated discussions in the community about the siting of such facilities, expires March 31.
“In its application, BC Housing cites the need for the additional shelter space due to COVID and the need in the community,” states a staff report prepared in advance of Tuesday’s council meeting.
Penticton and District Society for Community Living would continue to operate the facility, which is just metres from a seniors’ residence, as it has since opening in November 2020.
City staff is presenting two options to council: Deny the extension outright and ensure the shelter closes as planned on April 1; or undertake the usual public consultation process required for a temporary use permit and make a decision at the March 16 meeting. Staff is also recommending creation of siting guidelines to assist with such decisions the future.
Despite approving the original TUP by a 6-0 vote in late October, council members expressed frustration with the lack of options presented by BC Housing and PDSCL.
“We were put in a position with no other viable alternative but being backed into a corner and having to approve something most of us don’t feel is an appropriate,” Coun. Katie Robinson said at the time.
The former Victory Church was pressed into services as an emergency winter shelter due to COVID-19 space restrictions at the existing Compass House shelter that shut down 25 of 55 beds there.
But before it became a winter shelter on Nov. 1, PDSCL had since May been operating the former church as a hygiene centre where the street population can do laundry, take showers and access services.
City council is already locked in a dispute with BC Housing over the agency’s plan to build a new supportive housing project at the south end of Penticton with little in the way of public consultation.