By Daryl Major

Nanaimo’s Samaritan House eyes ambitious expansion

Mar 21, 2017 | 8:07 PM

NANAIMO — Samaritan House emergency women’s shelter in Nanaimo is virtually out of room.

That has Island Crisis Care Society, the shelter’s operator, planning an ambitious expansion with a tentative price tag of $1.9 million.

Overcrowding is a major issue at their current 20-bed Nicol St. facility, according to executive director Violet Hayes.

“Lots of homeless women and it just continues to grow,” Hayes said. “We definitely need to expand. We’re looking for program space and ways to help the women move forward, rather than just accessing the shelter.”

Hayes said the Society bought the lot next door a couple of years ago and now has a plan and a development permit from the City. She said the focus is now on forming a capital campaign committee to spearhead fund raising and grant applications. A building permit needs to be in place by next April.

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A big piece of the expansion is giving the shelter the ability to offer more programs for the women, shifting the focus from simply providing emergency housing. That could include a teaching kitchen and space for courses, Hayes said.

“We want to try and address those things (that led to a need for housing) and help them to learn how to budget…trying to get to the root of the problem rather than just putting them in a shelter.

“We really want to help the women to be a gateway out into finding housing and succeeding in that housing,” Hayes said.

Hayes sees the need for their shelter, which was at 118 per cent capacity this winter, increasing. “We’re seeing a lot of older people with the housing market the way it is now. Lots of landlords are selling their properties and there’s no where for people to go.”

She said the overcrowding situation will only be compounded when Nanaimo’s two extreme weather shelters close for the year at the end of March.

There is no set time line for construction. Donations to Samaritan’s expansion project can be made online.

daryl.major@jpbg.ca