The prolonged cold weather system that has blanketed the West Coast shows no signs of letting up, and that is putting strains on the local emergency shelter.
“We are very short on space, as you can well imagine,” said Salvation Army community ministries director Brent Hobden. “The 18 beds that we have, have certainly been full, but the interesting thing is that we have used more EWR (emergency weather response) mats than ever before. Going into this year I think the most we ever had was seven people sleeping on mats. This year we have had as many as 12.
“We haven’t reached our maximum capacity yet, which is a good thing; nobody has been turned away. So that’s a blessing. We are getting close, but we aren’t there yet.”
The shelter - Pidcock House - contains 18 beds: 12 for men downstairs and six for women on the main floor.
Renovations to Pidcock House (announced in December) began this week, but Hobden said the reno schedule was carefully planned so that existing rooms would not be compromised during the winter season.
“We made sure that all the space that we use for extreme weather response wouldn’t be hampered until well into the spring, when that program isn’t needed anymore, anyway,” said Hobden.
The expansion project will bump the number of beds to 26.
Hobden said despite the lower temperatures, the lack of rain is helping the cause.
“Our numbers were actually higher when it was raining,” he said.
“It wasn’t quite as cold, but because it was raining there were a few more people coming in. Now, having said that, we are still getting a significant amount of people.”
Hobden said despite the sub-zero evening temperatures, he has not received any weather-related patient reports from the hospital or the RCMP.
“It seems that the people who are needing to come in are either getting to the shelter, or finding other accommodations,” he said. “There will always be some people who remain outside, because they choose to, but we haven’t received andy reports of hypothermia.”
With the short-term forecast showing no signs of warming up, Hobden said he expects the emergency weather protocol to remain in place.
“Every indication I have from the people who determine whether the EWR is in effect or is not, every indication is that they plan on keeping it activated until further notice,” he said.
Valley comes through
Financially, Hobden said the Salvation Army is in a relatively good state for the time being.
“The Comox Valley really stepped up to the plate. In the last 10 days heading into Christmas, I was pretty worried that we weren’t going to hit our Christmas goals. But we surpassed our kettle goal of $132,000 by $900. So financially, at the moment we are good.”
He said the biggest challenge now is convincing those without a place to go that being indoors is necessary.
“The real challenge is just getting people to come in. We do have people who just refuse to - they are afraid to sleep inside... and for the public, just making us aware of where it is that people are sleeping, if they are outside.
“There is an outreach worker that is in the community that will look into that, find out where the people are, and do whatever they possibly can to encourage people to come in.”
The Salvation Army Comox Valley community ministries phone number is 250-338-5133. And to report someone in need, after hours?
“Call the RCMP,” said Hobden.
RCMP keeping watch
Cst. Rob Gardner of the Comox Valley RCMP said his detachment takes all calls regarding the well-being of people within the community seriously.
“As it gets colder out, we do receive calls for ‘check the well being of people’ as citizens will see people throughout the community that do not appear to be dressed very well for the weather, or out on the highway,” said Gardner. “We do everything we can to locate the people and ensure they are OK.
“When we locate anyone that is called in (by) someone..., or anyone we see while we are on patrol that may need assistance, we make sure we advise them of the options they have, like to visit a local shelter, or attend the Salvation Army for assistance. We will ensure that, if they chose to attend a location for assistance, they get there safely.”
According to Environment Canada, the seven-day forecast calls for continued lows below the freezing mark, with more snow (or rain) coming on the weekend.