The St. Anne and St. Edmund Anglican Church, pictured here in 2019, is once again being used as a cold weather shelter. (Adam Fras/Facebook)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

needed warmth

Parksville cold weather shelter returning to familiar site

Feb 20, 2021 | 10:25 AM

PARKSVILLE – The doors of a Parksville church are once again open to those in need during the cold and damp Parksville winter.

BC Housing announced late on Friday, Feb. 18 the St. Anne and St. Edmund Anglican Church on Wembly Rd. will house an eight-bed shelter until March 31.

It’s being run by the Oceanside Homelessness Ecumenical Advocacy Response (OHEART) and funded through BC Housing.

“It will provide guests with a clean bed, food, access to a washroom and will ensure people are following pandemic health guidelines, including physical distancing,” a notice from BC Housing said.

Most cold weather shelters open in November of December for several months throughout the damp winters, not with roughly one-and-a-half months left of service.

firm handshake

B.C. NDP government, Greens reach 'shared priorities' agreement

1h ago

young volunteers

'Make a big difference:' Nanaimo volunteers collecting warm clothing for those in need

2h ago

strong storm

Wind warning issued as Pacific storm approaches Island

3h ago

This is not the first time OHEART has stepped in to run a safe space for Parksville’s homeless during the winter.

The church was used in late 2019 as an informal cold weather shelter, instead referred to as a ‘pray and stay’ with blankets and food but without a formal suite of staff to look after the most vulnerable.

BC Housing has also secured 16 hotel rooms at one hotel in Parksville for those needing out of the cold in a socially-distanced manner, as it has in other communities throughout the pandemic.

A stable cold weather shelter was planned for Parksville to be included in the Orca Place supportive housing complex just outside Parksville’s downtown.

The option was removed at the best of Parksville’s city council in an prior dispute between the City and BC Housing.

info@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @nanaimonewsnow