By Ian Holmes

Nanaimo shelter bracing for huge winter crowds

Oct 31, 2017 | 8:53 PM

NANAIMO — A Nanaimo shelter will undoubtedly be pushed to its limits again this winter.

The Unitarian Shelter in the basement of a Townsite Rd. church opens Wednesday, Nov. 1 for the winter season through the end of March,  housing a wide cross-section of people escaping often nasty weather.

Shelter coordinator Kevan Griffith told NanaimoNewsNOW they’ve become a critical part of Nanaimo’s social fabric since opening a decade ago.

“I think I’m next-to-kin for four or five people,” Griffith said. “Not just do we give them a warm, safe place to stay for the winter, we try to give them an atmosphere, a family and some of them haven’t even seen that.”

Griffith said the low-barrier shelter is open nightly from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m., which includes hot meals, dry clothes and laundry services in a supervised setting.

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Griffith said last year featured more than 100 nights where the weather was deemed extreme, which saw provincial funding kick in.

He said they saw a record of more than 4,000 total overnight stays from about 160 different people last winter, of which about 80 per cent were men.

He pointed out last December the shelter increased from 24 to 30 beds since six to eight people were consistently being turned away nightly.

The Unitarian Shelter is Nanaimo’s only low-barrier shelter, which compliments the Salvation Army’s New Hope Centre for men and Samaritan House for women.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes