There’s stiff opposition to using Powell River’s Dwight Hall as an emergency weather shelter for the homeless.
Tempers flared Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 20) as roughly 100 residents in the Powell River council chambers opposed a plan by LIFT Community Services and BC Housing to use the historic hall.
Many are worried about a potential fire in the building.
“If we lose it, we’ll never get it back. We won’t get back the names that are written on the rafters in the ceiling of that building that I have personally seen,” resident Ted Vizzutti said.
Others are not happy with the track record of LIFT.
“They’re in it for the money. They don’t care about anything else and they don’t want any competition,” Cameron Bailey explained.
City council is likely to recommend the province look at the former Wildwood Firehall as a location instead during its meeting tonight (Jan. 22).
An extreme weather response shelter (EWR) was only used a half dozen times last season.
The EWR is triggered for situations where the temperature is below freezing, there’s an accumulation of snow or wind exceeding 70 kilometers an hour.
While LIFT Community Services has been approved as an EWR operation, a site hasn’t been approved as of this week.
“We are in the process of finalizing the last necessary details to support the EWR operation. The operator and the District are working to ensure the building and staffing are ready for an EWR activation,” BC Housing said in an email Tuesday to Vista Radio.
