Burnaby’s only emergency shelter needs to find a new home after St. Francis de Sales church decided to no longer host the facility.

The Catholic church on Balmoral Street had hosted the shelter since 2006.

Operated by Lookout Emergency Aid Society, it was only open during the fall and winter on nights with extreme weather conditions.

Father Thomas Smith, who started his post at St. Francis de Sales in July, said in an emailed statement that he made the decision because of a “noticeable increase in the amount of unsafe waste around the church building as well as the neighbouring elementary school” since the shelter opened.

“Children are walking around that area amid discarded syringes and human excrement. It’s only a matter of time before something terrible happens.”

Smith said he’s “very sympathetic” to those who use the shelter as well as emergency weather response officials who now have to make alternate arrangements.

Because of that, Smith has agreed to keep the shelter at St. Francis de Sales open for another month, until Dec. 1.

The parish will also donate $1,000 to help organizers rent another facility.

And Smith has asked his parishioners who supported the shelter, by volunteering their time and contributing food, to continue their efforts at its new location.

“I’m very saddened to have to end the use of the parish as a shelter. We were the first community group to offer to operate an emergency weather response shelter in Burnaby. However, we can’t take risks when it comes to the health of the children. They have to be our top priority.”

According to the website for the Burnaby Task Force on Homelessness, the shelter was open for 47 nights during the 2008-2009 season, with 1,173 bed nights utilized.

Of those, 976 or 83 per cent were used by men and 197 or 17 per cent were used by women. Along with paid staff from Lookout, it was operated with the help of 279 volunteers, who donated a total of 735.5 hours of their time.

A spokesperson from Lookout did not respond to interview requests before the NewsLeader’s deadline Friday.

wchow@burnabynewsleader.com