By Ian Holmes

Emergency youth shelter in Nanaimo expected to open next week

Dec 15, 2016 | 2:31 PM

NANAIMO — A temporary emergency shelter for teenagers sleeping on Nanaimo’s frigid streets is expected to open in one week, according to the city’s social planner.

John Horn says the Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Friendship Centre on Haliburton Street has emerged as the likely site for a 12-bed overnight shelter.

Horn says there is much more clarity following a productive meeting on Wednesday with Tillicum staff.

“We’re much closer to the who and where and that will give us a lot better opportunity to answer the ‘when is it going to happen’ question,” said Horn.

This week, city council approved spending $75,000 on the youth homeless shelter initiative, which would see a temporary shelter open nightly through the end of March. An eight bed emergency shelter for youth on Tenth Street is often full and an estimated 10 to 15 teenagers are currently sleeping on the streets, according to a city staff report.

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Horn says the temporary space could become a permanent service moving forward.

“Part of the purpose in firing up the shelter is to see if we make this available to kids and make some effort to connect with those street kids, what will be the take up on that,” he said. “That will tell us for sure if there’s a need for this thing or not.”

Horn says the planned shelter on Haliburton, near Needham Street, has washrooms and a small kitchen for limited hot beverages and food to be served. Horn notes that the shelter for those 18 and under would likely run between 8 p.m and 8 a.m. He adds that the service would likely be operated and staffed at all times by two Tillicum staff members.

The homeless youth shelter movement was propelled by citizen Audrey Buvet, who alerted City Council on December. 5 of several youth she knew of sleeping outside in Nanaimo.