Trail's homeless shelter providing longterm solutions to growing problem
By Kyra Hoggan
It’s been a balmy November in terms of temperature, but relentless rain has underscored the merit of Trail’s only emergency shelter, La Nina.
Program coordinator Sheila Adcock said the shelter’s had occupants more than half the nights since it opened for the season on Nov. 12, and the need is growing.
“We have a handful of people living under bridges and in alleys – but many are the ‘invisible homeless’, who are couch surfing, staying off-and-on with family or friends, and having to move around, place-to-place.”
Run by an ad hoc committee that functions as a committee of the Knox United Church on Pine Avenue (kitty corner to Ferraro’s), the shelter opened for the February/March season of 2011, from November 2011 to April 2012, and now will be open from November 2012 to about April 2013.
The six-bed shelter was originally opened in the Salvation Army Church in East Trail, then was relocated to the basement of the United Church. It employs one administrator and one bookkeeper, as well as14 regular shelter workers last year, according to United Church Minister Keith Simmonds.
“We’ve contracted with Career Development Services to provide us with management services, and we’ve connected with other agencies to ensure we offer more than just a bed for a night,” he said, adding BC Housing pays for the shelter, but not for any administrative services at all. “We fundraise to pay for administration and outreach workers, and other extras like food.”
He said they started, for their first two months of operation in 2011, as an extreme-weather shelter, meaning they were only open if it was below 0 degrees and windy/rainy/snowy.
“It was horrendous – making an already unreliable housing situation even more unreliable and dodgy,” he said, adding they asked for, and received, funding to keep the shelter open every night through the winter season, regardless of weather.
“Had we not gotten that funding, we wouldn’t have been open,” he said. “Or we would have been out in the community looking for a lot more funding or a lot more volunteers.”
He said the shelter is open from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m., seven days a week, with soup at night and cereal and coffee in the morning.
“An outreach worker can take people from the shelter to a drop-in location where they can have a shower,” he added. “There’ll be posters up around town with contact information, and pick-up service with a wheelchair-equipped van.”
For more information, call the shelter at 250-368-3225.
Adcock said the shelter is the first step in a critical process that’s part of a strategy developed by the Trail Skills Centre, Career Development Services, and Communities in Faith.
“It’s a much-needed service – we don’t have any hostels or transitional housing or affordable, crisis-driven shelters,” she said. “We’re probably all little more than one paycheque away from having no place to live.”
She said the outreach workers team up with the shelter users to identify and resolve housing barriers, creating long-term housing solutions that last.
She also said the perception that homeless people will come from other parts of the province to Trail to take advantage of the service is just nonsense.
“That’s a myth,” she said. “These are our people; local people. But they don’t feel like a part of the community, they don’t feel welcome. It’s horrific, thinking someone’s wandering the streets, believing they don’t belong here.
“We need to take care of our own.”
Of course, as a non-profit with limited funding, La Nina shelter is always delighted to accept donations – to donate or get more information, call 250-368-3225.
Comments