POWELL RIVER, B.C. – Residents in need have a place to stay warm during the cool, wet winter nights in Powell River.
The Community Resource Centre on Joyce Avenue is open every night to offer free emergency shelter for the less fortunate.
Manager Martyn Woolley said the service is available seven days a week.
“People can access the overnight emergency shelter from 9:30 p.m. until 7:45 the next morning,” Woolley said.
He added that the centre offers a daytime program Monday through Thursday.
People can visit the centre for legal aid, to use the Internet, receive residential tenancy assistance. Woolley said the centre is a “one-stop shop”.
“If anyone comes through the door with a problem, we try to solve that problem. And for some reason, if we don’t solve it on-site, we’ll refer the people to the appropriate service,” he explained.
Come 9:30 p.m., anyone can visit the shelter to stay warm at night.
“Historically what’s happened is that an emergency shelter opens after negative-three (degrees Celsius) or when a certain amount of rain has fallen, and we’re open seven days a week,” Woolley said.
“If people need assistance, we have a curfew of 11 p.m., so people have to access the shelter before 11 p.m. and then people can go to sleep, and it’s a secure, safe environment for folks.”
Woolley told MyPowellRiverNow.com that the shelter service would be open until April 1st, 2019.
“We’ve recognized that there is a housing challenge in Powell River. It’s consistently gotten worse each year, and finally we have a place where people can come and be safe overnight. We’ve served folks that have been put up in tents in December, folks that have been locked out of their homes by their landlords,” he said.
“This is to keep people safe and keep people alive through that horrible, wet and windy cold season we have on the Coast. For us to have something in place in this town is a huge success.”
The shelter can be reached at (604) 485-0992, and is located at 4752 Joyce Avenue.
