Capacity woes continue at Nanaimo homeless shelters
NANAIMO — A harsh winter was behind the high use of Nanaimo’s homeless shelters, but the situation hasn’t improved in the spring.
More than 3,700 people used Nanaimo’s extreme weather shelter at the First Unitarian Church and more than 1,000 spent a night at the Oceanside shelter. Both reported being consistently overcapacity throughout the season, with the eight-bed Oceanside shelter constantly helping 14 people a night.
Michelle Authier, operations manager at the Island Crisis Care Society, said their Samaritan House emergency women’s shelter has been overcapacity for three years and their situation is most dire in the summer after the extreme weather shelters close.
From Jan. 1 to June 8, 188 unique clients visited Samaritan House, 61 of which were brand new to the service.