Outgrown shelter eyes move to old RCMP building
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More residents and lack of adequate room is prompting the Port Alberni Shelter Society to look for a new building, and the old RCMP building could be it.
“We’d like to explore the possibility of using the old RCMP building as a larger shelter,” society administrator Wes Hewitt said.
“If we can put the funding together, then we’d like to move there.”
The existing Eighth Avenue shelter operates 40 beds, five emergency cots, two couches and can spread mats on the floor. But, it is already operating over capacity, and that’s a troubling sign, Hewitt said.
“This isn’t even our busy time of year yet, but we’re already seeing numbers we usually don’t see until December,” Hewitt said.
The old RCMP building, however, would allow residents to be sheltered more comfortably instead of “…being stacked like chords of wood,” he said.
Currently, the shelter is funded as an emergency shelter by B.C. Housing. It receives $500 per month from residents, public donations, as well as a B.C. Gaming grant, the status of which isn’t known yet, he added.
Cursory discussions have been held with the city about the building, Hewitt said, but officials have been reticent about its status.
“We were told we could bid on the building when it goes up for sale.”
Hewitt says he’s also had discussions with B.C. Housing and VIHA, but can’t proceed until a building value has been established, something the city has been reluctant to establish, but which Hewitt estimates to be $350,000, he said.
Hewitt said he is aware of the failed bid by the Community Stakeholders Initiative to end Homelessness (CSI)for taking over the old RCMP building to turn it into a zero barrier shelter.
“But CSI was a rather new initiative; we’ve been established for 30 years and have developed long working relationships with bodies like B.C. Housing and VIHA,” Hewitt said.
City manager Ken Watson said formal discussions haven’t taken place with the society as of yet, but he has met and talked with Hewitt informally.
However, Watson did confirm the old RCMP building’s status.
“Council has directed that the building be put up for sale,” Watson said.
But, there has been no bidding yet because “The city is working on an agreement with a local realtor to do that.”
reporter@albernivalleynews.com
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