Women are now moving into the Community Services Building, with more to follow and men sheltered downstairs. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

safe space

Community Service Building finally opens to help vulnerable people living on Nanaimo streets

Oct 30, 2020 | 12:03 PM

NANAIMO — The doors are finally open at a safe space for Nanaimo’s homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first women from Nanaimo’s streets started moving into the Community Services Building on Prideaux St. last week, with more currently being selected.

Violet Hayes, executive director of housing operator Island Crisis Care Society, told NanaimoNewsNOW the space will house those who need it the most.

“This is for women who are medically vulnerable and living on the streets or in unsafe housing. Now they’ve been triaged and are starting to move in.”

Twenty women will sleep upstairs with 15 men moving in downstairs starting in November once final renovations to install showers are finished. They’ll remain separate inside the building and don’t share an entrance.

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The building was first purchased in April, 2020 near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several organizations were displaced from the building as a result.

It was supposed to open as an emergency response centre on June 1 but the opening was delayed due to required renovations.

“The main concern was ensuring the building was safe for fire,” Hayes said. “Correct enclosures around stairwells, fire doors, shutters on windows and an escape outside. Downstairs the biggest renovation has been adding showers.”

Since being announced, COVID-19 cases on Vancouver Island dwindled in the summer, with a stetch of no new cases in May and June. For roughly two weeks there in June there were no confirmed active cases of COVID-19 within Island Health.

In early June, when the emergency response centre at the Community Services Building was to open, BC Housing confirmed to NanaimoNewsNOW less spaces in hotel rooms were needed to house those living on the streets during the pandemic. Slightly more than 30 housing spaces were secured at the time.

The number of cases has risen, with the highest number of active cases within the health authority reaching 17 in October 13.

The most recent data shows there’s currently 10 active cases within Island Health.

Hayes said the emergency space will help those with medical needs beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To be out on the streets and having something like COPD or health concerns making you likely to be sick, if we can bring them in and give them a warm place to be and regular food, we’ll do what we can to keep them alive until they can get into permanent supportive housing.”

Island Crisis Care Society will operate one of several supportive housing complexes being built in Nanaimo.

Their Samaritan House shelter is set to be rebuilt on Nicol St. and become a 40-bed supportive housing complex.

The Society already operates a similarly sized supportive housing facility in Parksville which opened in 2019.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @SpencerSterritt