Vernon city council agrees to write letter of support for Upper Room Mission

Council supports Mission

Photo: Google Street View

The three total lots that Upper Room Mission has acquired

The City of Vernon has agreed to write a letter of support for the Upper Room Mission to receive funding from BC Housing.

The charity asked city council for its written support in its application for funding from BC Housing to build a year-round dry shelter, an expansion of the URM’s current winter-only shelter program.

The shelter is part of a larger, future, redevelopment plan which also includes building a 15-bed substance withdrawal management unit in partnership with a health authority, more than 100 units of sober living apartments, and other ancillary support like job opportunities.

It’s very early stages of the development and Jacco de Vin with the Upper Room said it’s just looking for initial support to receive funding at this time.

“We're not building anything [right now], but we hope to eventually, and there'll be a public process to that whole development anyway, to make sure we get buy-in from the community,” said de Vin.

He also clarified to Castanet the group has three total lots now. The lot where its current building sits at 3403 27th Ave, the lot behind that building at 3404 27th Ave which it's owned for years, and the lot behind that one at 3407 27th Ave which it bought last year.

The dry shelter wouldn’t require any work to be done to surrounding lots, it would remain in the Mission’s main building.

Roy Nuriel with the city planning department said in council that the city has not seen schematics for the proposed changes, but is a part of planning discussions.

Council passed coun. Kelly Fehr’s motion to write a letter of support for the Upper Room to create a year-round dry shelter funded by BC Housing.