Ask the people from the John Howard Society who are running Kelowna’s largest temporary winter shelter and they will tell you that their initiative has met all expectations.
The former A&B Sound building on Leon Avenue became a shelter nearly two months ago.
Today, it’s the temporary home for up to 80 homeless people. But this is no Holiday Inn. There are no beds, only mats.
“The goal of this shelter is to keep people alive through the winter and we are doing that,” Gaelene Askeland of the John Howard Society said.
The shelter provides a safe injection site inside the building and over a span of six weeks, officials estimate there have been about 35 overdoses.
“In six weeks, that’s actually not that bad,” Askeland said.
And Askeland said there hasn’t been a single fatality inside the building.
So, the folks at John Howard Society say they’re happy with how things are going, but some neighbouring businesses are not happy.
The owner of a pizza shop next to the shelter said she would like to see it moved to another location if it does come back next winter.
The owner of Business Finders Canada, right across the street from the pizza shop feels the same way.
“I don’t want it in this particular location,” Steve Harvey said.
He adds that his clients don’t like coming to his office because of the street people.
“We get people telling us: ‘Hey, you’ve got a great company, you’ve got great people working but your location — and for us to walk in here is sometimes a little bit shady.’”
However, some neighbouring businesses feel the shelter should stay.
“I feel that it’s a lot more safer,” Monika Klanyi of Vancouver Career College said. “We see less and less people making up shelters and campsites within our area. So I think I would like to have it back next year for sure, especially in the winter.”
The shelter is scheduled to close at the end of March, but the John Howard Society said it would like to extend that deadline until it warms up and would like to see the shelter return next year.
It said that will be up to BC Housing to decide.
BC Housing said it’s currently in discussions with the city of Kelowna on whether the shelter should stay open longer than the March deadline.
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