New Extreme Weather Response shelter opens in Courtenay
The overnight shelter will continue to open on evenings when extreme weather criteria are met, operating for the hours of 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. Photo: Heather Watson / CHLY 101.7 FM
“We do have some good news coming this week. We have an extreme weather shelter coming to the community, and that will bring in 18 to 20 individuals from our community from the cold at night,” said Dayna Forsgren.
A new Extreme Weather Response shelter was activated for the first time on Thursday February 6th as extreme weather conditions persist in Courtenay. The overnight shelter will continue to open on evenings when extreme weather criteria are met, operating for the hours of 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
The extreme weather criteria are set by BC Housing, who approve and fund these emergency shelter spaces. The space itself is being provided by the City of Courtenay for the remainder of the cold months.
Dayna Forsgren, coordinator of the Comox Valley Coalition to End Homelessness, said that the need in the community is dire.
“It’s really tough. It's definitely a life and death situation. There's a lot of hypothermia, a lot of people who are really struggling,” she said. “I think that people are really just trying to survive.”
Forsgren said that while it would have been best to have this Extreme Weather Response shelter ready and open before the snow hit, it will provide critical support now as the nighttime temperatures are expected to remain below freezing for several days.
“It's unfortunate [the shelter] wasn't able to be activated before this week, but it will provide a great deal of relief for folks,” she said. “This is actually just a nighttime shelter, so it's open during the nights. People will get a hot meal, they'll have a space to sleep. It's a really important point of contact for a lot of those who are experiencing homelessness; it's a space that you can also be connected to resources, and so they serve a really important role.”
Forsgren explained that the kinds of resources shelters are able to provide increase accessibility to a broad range of services, from applying for rental subsidies, to navigating healthcare options.
“ It really is a wide range,” she said, “every person we meet has a variety of things going on in their lives. I think what we see is that because there's so many services they need to navigate, it just makes it so much more complex for that individual to do it on their own.”
Forsgren said that those who are most at risk are also most impacted by the extreme weather.
“ A lot of those who are experiencing homelessness in our community are individuals who have a lot of chronic health issues. And that's why a lot of these individuals [who] experience poverty [are] unable to access employment. So they're already in a lot of pain,” she said.
Forsgren emphasizes the importance of bringing these voices to the table, and as part of the Coalition to End Homelessness meets every week with community members experiencing homelessness, as well as frontline workers. The coalition then brings these collected experiences to managers, directors, and regional district and municipal leadership staff.
“ In a large part it’s around sharing resources, making sure that we have a shared vision and values and so we can work collectively and bring our resources and expertise together,” Forsgren said. “ I think it needs to come from those who are experiencing it. They need to be involved at all levels, and they need to have that ability to share their experience, to be a part of the decision making, to be able to have the ability to share their voices, [and] navigate systems so they can speak their truth.”
A more permanent resource in Courtenay is the Connect Warming Centre, operated by the Comox Valley Transition Society. Eric Lopatinsky is the Transition Society’s Manager of Shelter and Supportive Housing, and one of his roles is supporting the Connect Warming Centre.
“We're open 24 hours a day to support, but during the daytime we're just a warming center and resource center,” he said. “It's space for folks to come inside, get some hot coffee, a meal, warm clothes and connections to community resources. And then overnight we offer 33 shelter beds.”
Lopatinsky said that the limitations of the space, with only room for 33 beds, means that there are often folks who need to spend the night outside. The additional 18 beds at the new Emergency Weather Response shelter will provide more space, however according to a homelessness count in 2023 there were 272 individuals experiencing homelessness at that time.
“[In] our community, we are small and under-resourced compared to some bigger city centers,” he said, adding “[Connect is] the only low barrier space. So for folks that are impacted by substance use or maybe just other behavioral challenges, there's not a lot of other spaces for them to go.”
Being a low barrier space means the Connect centre doesn’t turn anyone away for using substances.
“ And even us [at] Connect, while we are open 24 hours a day, there are three times a day that we do have to close our site to provide appropriate cleaning,” Lopatinsky said. “So we are closed for three and a half additional hours a day in the morning, afternoon and evening to give the site a big cleaning inside and get it ready for folks to come back.”
Lopatinsky has observed the need for these supports increasing over the past year.
“I've only been working in the valley [since] April and in my short time working at Connect, we've seen a big increase in folks that are needing to access our services,” he said. “We do have limited capacity inside for seating and no daytime sleeping areas for individuals. And that poses additional challenges in the community as folks are forced to find creative ways outside to stay warm.”
The extreme weather only increases these issues, Lopatinsky said.
“ Our biggest changes are just wellness of the folks that need to access our services, it is much harder in these conditions and then we don't always have the ability to provide enough warm clothes or sleeping bags or other things to allow folks to stay warm,” he said.
Lopatinsky encourages Comox Valley residents to check in on their neighbours, on and off the streets.
“For local residents, and especially in these colder weather spaces, [I] would encourage folks to check on their community members, making sure folks are okay, that they're warm enough. If not, please call our community supports and find out resources for folks,” he said. “We're always open to donations of warm clothes and sleeping bags at Connect.”
The new Extreme Weather Response shelter is located at 971 Cumberland Road, which was previously home to the Courtenay Community Thrift Store, and will be open 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. on nights when the temperature is 1 degree Celsius or lower.
For more information visit the Comox Valley Coalition to End Homelessness Facebook page.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Reporting done in the Comox Valley is done in partnership with CVOX.