West Kelowna winter shelter desperately seeking new location

The City of West Kelowna will not have a homeless shelter this winter if a new location isn't found soon.

For the past three years, the West Kelowna Shelter Society has operated out of the Emmanuel Church — but with the increasing numbers of people seeking shelter and the church space struggling to accommodate them, organizers are desperately seeking a new location.

"We do not have something to open on Nov. 1," said Rosemary Weighill, president of the shelter, which has seen growing demand since it began.

"It's the numbers — when you start looking at how many people are seeking shelter in the winter … certain locations just don't work," Weighill told Chris Walker, host of CBC's Daybreak South.

The shelter has operated overnight, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., as a severe-weather shelter during the colder months.

Over capacity

The shelter started off with fewer than 10 overnight guests in the first year. By last year, that number had more than doubled and reached the shelter's capacity of 25 people.

Some night, over 40 people were showing up for evening meals.

"We need a space that would realistically house 45 or maybe up to 50 people every night for sleeping and some access to services during the day," she said.

"We're looking for a good sized, vacant building."

Stumbling blocks

However, not every empty building will necessarily work as a shelter.

"Just because you see an empty property does not mean it fits the zoning for a shelter," Weighill said.

"And certainly privately owned property, you have to go to the landlord and negotiate."

The location has to be appropriate and convenient for those using the services but also has to be mindful of neighbours, she added.

"All of those things can be a bit of a stumbling block," Weighill said.

The shelter has been looking for a new location for a year, she said, but several possible options fell through at the "11th hour."

These last-minute changes of plan meant Emmanuel Church, which has offered to continue hosting the shelter, went ahead with scheduling other events, and now "runs a multitude of community programs." 

"It's a very busy building and it's busy every day, every evening of the week, which limits the capacity to allow guests to come in sometimes," Weighill said.

"It's really just the capacity and the dynamics of what we are putting into that space."

With files from Daybreak South