The City of Nanaimo council has voted to allocate up to $230,000 to Risebridge to operate a daytime warming centre this winter that will run seven days a week between November 14 and March 31, 2024.<\/p>\n
The money is coming from approximately $400,000 that is available from the Asset Retirement Obligation Project Surplus Fund.<\/p>\n
Council also directed staff to call for expressions of interest from other organizations willing to run additional warming centres and for additional funds to be identified.<\/p>\n
Coun. Paul Manly supported the motion to fund Risebridge but that more sites are needed<\/p>\n
\u201cThe capacity for Risebridge is just not going to be there, in terms of the number of people that are going to be seeking warmth on cold, wet miserable days,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the impact on this one particular neighborhood is going to be strenuous. I think we need to share the load a little bit in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manly says that the need exists from \u201cnorth to south in Nanaimo\u201d and that he hopes people who have empty buildings and faith organizations \u201cstep up.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the city-funded warming centre, BC Housing is funding a 35-bed temporary shelter at St. Peter\u2019s Church operated by the Nanaimo Family Life Association that opened on Wednesday night and will run until the spring.<\/p>\n
Coun. Sheryl Armstrong says that smaller organizations should also consider helping out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think even if you say that you can take in 10 people or 20 people, I think that's very important for us to hear about,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause if we had 10 organizations willing to take in 20, that gives us 200.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coun. Hilary Eastmure says that in addition to the warming centres, she would like to see city bylaw and community safety officers (CSO) change their approach in cold weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that our CSOs have a responsibility for ensuring the downtown is a safe and welcoming place for everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I know that there have been instances lately when we've had really, really terrible weather at night and they've been out there, by our own direction, forcing people to leave vacant doorways in the middle of the night. And they have nowhere else to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave Laberge, manager of bylaw services for the city, took umbrage at the remark.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of the time of the CSOs is actually taken wayfinding, supporting and [doing] wellness checks,\u201d he told council. \u201cThey gather clothing and things to keep people safe and warm in extreme weather. So to suggest that they're being disrupted or moved, or that these things are being taken away during inclement weather, it's actually the antithesis of what these officers are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laberge says that bylaw officers try to balance the rights of unhoused people sheltering in city parks with not allowing encampments to become entrenched and present a fire hazard.<\/p>\n
Mayor Leonard Krog says the city\u2019s property tax base isn\u2019t sufficient to fund social services at the level that is needed<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that we need to deliver these kinds of public services, shelter spaces and warming centers in this community for hundreds of our fellow citizens, and across this province thousands of fellow citizens, is to me the ultimate condemnation of where we have allowed ourselves \u2014 and I take my full role in it as well \u2014 collectively to get to in the 21st century is appalling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Coun. Tyler Brown also moved that the council sent a letter to Premier David Eby \u201coutlining the continued and severe health needs of unsheltered populations in Nanaimo and the community wide need for provincial funding that matches the scale of the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council voted unanimously to support that motion.<\/p>\n
Listen to CHLY\u2019s story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Temporary overnight shelter also opens at St. Peter’s Church The City of Nanaimo council has voted to allocate up to $230,000 to Risebridge to operate a daytime warming centre this winter that will run seven days a week between November 14 and March 31, 2024. The money is coming from approximately $400,000 that is available…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":191575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,223,21655,225],"tags":[8924,28554,19655,31873,11786],"radio":[240],"origine":[280,265,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191568"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192298,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191568\/revisions\/192298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191568"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=191568"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=191568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}