By Ian Holmes

Nanaimo shelter likely won’t return as officials seek alternative solutions

Mar 15, 2017 | 6:59 PM

NANAIMO —All signs point to an emergency shelter for Nanaimo’s youth lasting just one winter.

While seven to 10 youth have used the Haliburton St. shelter lately, Tillicum Lelum’s Courtney Defriend told NanaimoNewsNOW their agency and the City want a more proactive solution.

“This is somewhat of a band-aid approach and it’s really given us insight on how big this issue truly is,” she said. “Moving forward it would be more around strategizing, looking at how we can shift our partnerships and collaboration to come up with some support that’s further than just the shelter piece.”

Defriend said the goal is trying to support teens before they end up on the streets and turn to shelters for housing.

“Kids need to be supported basically right from conception in order to be successful,” Defriend said. “Intervening at 12, 13-years-old is just not the way that we need to be going about it.”

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The shelter, operated by Tillicum Lelum, is one of two for Nanaimo’s youth. Tillicum Lelum also operates a well-used, year-round youth shelter on Tenth St.

A $75,000 operating grant from the city of Nanaimo to open the Haliburton St. shelter was issued soon after city council was told an estimated 10 to 15 youth were sleeping outside during the bitterly cold winter.

The service opened in mid-December, with just one youth using it for the first several weeks. Defriend said usage picked up toward the end of January.

City social planner John Horn said a more deliberate process will be examined moving forward.

“Where we examine what it is that creates the situation where these kids are going to that shelter,” Horn said.

He said the Ministry of Children and Family Development will lead a multi-partner effort to better support youth after the City funded shelter closes.

Defriend noted that most of the youth in the shelter are between 16 and 18-years-old, who are escaping the more structured settings of foster care.

She said the missing link is a lack of appropriate services earlier in life which in part have led youth to their doorstep to be housed.

ian.holmes@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @reporterholmes