'Devastating': Okanagan’s only youth shelter experiencing staffing crisis
The Okanagan’s only youth shelter in Kelowna experienced multiple closures in recent weeks due to lack of staff.
Sarah MacKinnon is the director of youth services with BGC Okanagan which offers 10 beds specifically for youth at its downtown location on Richter Street in Kelowna.
In the last few weeks, the emergency youth shelter has closed twice due to the lack of overnight staff, she said.
It’s been an ongoing issue for shelter operators in Thompson-Okanagan region this fall. Kelowna’s Gospel Mission has only been able to open 30 of 60 available beds at its newest temporary winter shelter due to the lack of overnight staff.
“If you’re a young person and you’re facing homelessness and you’re in a crisis and have nowhere else to go, then a shelter closure is the worst thing that could happen to you that day,” she said. “If they’re with us, that means they have nowhere else to go and that’s devastating.”
The non-profit first tries to find other solutions for the young people, like staying with friends or relatives, before offering them the shelter service as part of a shelter diversion program.
BGC Okanagan offers a variety of youth and children’s programs but with the lack of shelter staff, other employees are getting pulled from those programs, meaning they’re also being shut down or staff are experiencing burnout.
“Even when all of your positions are full, people are becoming sick, they’re going to take a vacation, it's very important for them to have time away from work and when that happens it’s crucial that we’re able to fill those roles,” MacKinnon said.
It’s not just the shelter staff that’s experiencing shortages, many of BGC’s programs are also looking for workers.
A coalition of Thompson-Okanagan non-profits recently sent a letter to the province, Interior Health and municipal governments saying they were fed up with temporary winter shelters as a solution to homelessness.
"Operators are running shelters in rundown buildings, in overcrowded rooms and in temporary structures, in part, because some municipalities in the region have lacked the political will or courage to build permanent, purpose-built shelters and additional supportive housing," the letter read.
"We are not responsible for the reality of homelessness, unpredictable behaviour and the burgeoning mental health crisis; and yet, we have policy makers, politicians, businesses, and journalists holding us responsible to speak to why the people facing homelessness on the street are behaving badly and why we’re not doing more."
READ MORE: Homeless shelter operators in Okanagan, Kamloops tired of gov't downloading, inaction
With housing and homelessness services having to expand to meet the increasing need in Kelowna, there’s a smaller pool non-profits can draw from for employees that work in this type of field, MacKinnon said.
“We’re still coming up short.”
To see the current list of positions available, MacKinnon asks people to go to BGC Okanagan’s website and click on the job postings tab.
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