Kelowna, B.C., shelter transformed into hygiene centre for homeless
Courtney Dickson | CBC News | Posted: April 17, 2020 1:15 AM | Last Updated: April 17, 2020
Building offers laundry facilities, showers to make up for limited services
Following health advice to wash your hands often may seem simple enough, but if you don't have a home and all the services you use to wash up have closed, it gets tricky.
A winter shelter in the Okanagan city of Kelowna, B.C., has been transformed into a hygiene centre for the city's homeless population to wash their hands, have a shower and do laundry.
"It's a huge challenge right now for those that are experiencing homelessness," said Jason Siebenga, co-manager of the centre.
The centre, once the Welcome Inn winter shelter which housed 40 people, closed at the end of winter. In addition, other shelters in town have had to reduce capacity to account follow physical distancing rules during the COVID-19 pandemic..
"Then if you add into that the complexity of mental illness ... frankly the problems that people are facing on a day-to-day basis make it harder to really sit back and think about how to focus on social distancing," Siebenga said.
In addition to laundry facilities and showers, the centre offers harm reduction services and free clothing for clients.
The centre, funded by B.C. Housing, is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and since it opened on March 31, Siebenga said it's been busy, all day, every day.
He is unsure how long the centre will be in place — they'll stay open as long as the current health crisis persists.
"It's just a basic necessity as long as we've got this many people experiencing homelessness and with nowhere else to go," Siebenga said.
He hopes that this time of uncertainty, with some people living paycheque to paycheque and dealing with insecurity around housing, will cause people to be more empathetic toward vulnerable people in the city.
"How many bad things happening in our life are we away from our lives going off the rails?" he said.
"At a time like this it would be really great to see the community come together and not have a wedge drawn between people that are struggling in a terrible way. It's a challenging time out here for these people."