iN VIDEO: Public safety top priority as new Kelowna homeless shelter prepares to open
One of the top concerns for Kelowna residents with the opening of a new homeless shelter downtown is public safety.
Kelowna’s Gospel Mission organized an open house for the public Friday, Oct. 7, prior to the new homeless shelter’s opening at the corner of Bay Avenue and Ellis Street. It doesn't yet have an official opening date yet but the mission has a contract to run it until the end of March, 2023.
The intention of the open house is spread awareness about the shelter and answer questions from the public and address the stigma around homelessness.
Residents Elizabeth Freedman and Joy Zsombor both live in the downtown area and attended the open house.
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Zsombor said she wanted to check out the inside and find out more information about the shelter's security and hours of operation. She has experienced petty crime in her neighbourhood but nothing too serious in the last five years that she’s lived here, she said, adding her husband was concerned with her walking route because of the new shelter.
“I’ve gone in the last year and a half from being able to go out on walks by myself, a bike ride, and never locking my door to locking the door, watching the time, being worried about going down (alleys in the downtown),” Freedman said.
Gospel Mission executive director Carmen Rempel said diverse shelter and housing options will help alleviate the challenges with those on the street.
The Bay Avenue shelter will replace the 60-unit shelter at 550 Doyle Ave., which closed last July. Overnight camp sites across Kelowna have been overflowing with homeless individuals, something the city previously said would be alleviated with the opening of the shelter.
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“We’re trying to help the homelessness problem, we didn’t create the homelessness problem… we’re trying to contain it," Rempel. "We’re here to take everybody whose outside sleeping in bushes, behind people’s home and we can bring them inside.
“If we can bring people inside, it reduces the impacts of homelessness on the streets.”
Once open, the shelter space will be available for both men and women. It will provide showers, toilets, laundry and food services as well as allow pets with a certain criteria, said Vanessa Hair, resource development manager for the Gospel Mission.
Rempel said security will be on site both inside and outside the building 24 hours a day.
The province invested $500,000 to renovate the new shelter and will provide approximately $2.1 million in annual operating funding as well as a start up cost of $25,000, according to a press release.
Kelowna’s March 2020 point-in-time count identified at least 297 people experiencing homelessness in the community, which is a 4% increase from 2018.
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