Salt Spring Island residents who are homeless will have year-round access to shelter and services, starting Nov. 1.
The shelter, operated by Salt Spring Island Community Services at 268 Fulford-Ganges Rd., was previously open Nov. 1 to March 31.
In the spring, church leaders proposed extending the shelter hours, especially as people who were homeless and without the shelter services in the spring, summer and fall had resorted to sleeping in a park.
The shelter provides 30 overnight beds, access to laundry and showers and two meals a day for shelter guests.
The shelter will be open overnight from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.
“Housing challenges experienced in communities across British Columbia are magnified on the Southern Gulf Islands,” said Adam Olsen, Green MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, in a statement.
“I’m thrilled that the government has responded to the calls from Salt Spring Island to expand shelter services.”
Salt Spring Island is home to many high-end single-family homes, and not enough multi-family housing, making housing unaffordable to many, Olsen said.
One of the biggest pressures on the island is access to water. While it’s relatively easy to drill a well to supply a single-family house with water, it’s more complicated to do the same for a multi-family building.
“The lack of water adds significant pressure,” Olsen said.
The community of about 10,000 people also has a disproportionately high homeless population, due to its proximity to Vancouver and Victoria, and its reputation for providing an alternate lifestyle, said Rob Grant, executive director of Salt Spring Island Community Services.
The island’s homelessness count in March 2018 identified 131 homeless people, compared with 83 two years earlier, in February 2016. Grant said the numbers jumped around the time Victoria’s tent city was shut down in the summer of 2016.
He said people come to the island from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Victoria to live “a little off the grid,” but there aren’t enough services to support the population.
Staff hope the year-round services will allow them to strengthen their relationships with shelter users and assist them to move into permanent housing.
Grant said elected officials had let the province know of Salt Spring’s “significant homeless population” and the need for more services.
“It is to the credit of B.C. Housing that they have acknowledged that and recognized the need here,” said Grant, in a statement.
The province is providing about $720,000 to extend operations at the shelter.
