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ShareThirty shelter mats added for extreme weather
By Keith Vass - Victoria News
Published: December 01, 2008 6:00 PM
Updated: December 01, 2008 6:26 PM
Thirty more floor mats are now available for Victoria’s Extreme Weather Protocol.
The Salvation Army’s High Point Church on Fullerton Avenue in Victoria West has agreed to open space for the 30-bed shelter, which will be staffed by the Salvation Army.
The 30 emergency shelter mats located at the Salvation Army shelter on Johnson Street were made into permanent spaces, open every night until March, with provincial funding announced last month.
Having those spaces available is “actually helping to alleviate the need for the extreme weather protocol, which is a really positive thing,” said the program’s co-ordinator, Jen Book.
The protocol now adds 110 mats to the the 286 regular shelter spaces available nightly.
The protocol is activated on nights where temperatures drop below freezing, or when extreme rain, snow or wind present a threat of hypothermia.
Book said finding new shelter locations is challenging.
“We sort of wandered around and looked at several locations to determine if their locations were appropriate,” she said.
Shelter users will be shuttled to the High Point church from the Salvation Army’s downtown location.
kvass@vicnews.com
