Shelter completes move

Photo: Colin Dacre

Penticton's new homeless shelter on Main Street

It was moving week for Penticton’s homeless shelter, now fully transitioned out of the downtown to “Compass Court” at the old Super 8 Motel on Main Street.

With the move, the Penticton and District Society for Community Living takes over operation of the city’s only shelter from the Salvation Army.

All shelter staff, however, have also made the transition to the newly renovated, larger space.

“It was an easy transition,” said said PDSCL executive director Tony Laing. “The people haven’t changed, it's just a matter of getting used to the new location.”

The shelter has been constructed in the motel’s old swimming pool and has 25 beds, up from 16 at the Compass House location on Nanaimo Ave.

“The people that we’ve been trying to house are so grateful for having such a nice place to live and are very appreciative,” said Laing.

Despite the small increase in beds, he added they are still turning people away on a regular basis.

“The shelter was full before, and we’ve only increased a few extra beds. We filled those and we are getting calls from other agencies, the hospital and such... We’ve tried to accommodate as much as we can, but there are still turnaways.”

Laing said they are in negotiations with BC Housing over funding to increase capacity.

By the time renovations are complete at Compass Court, PDSCL will manage about 300 subsidized housing units in the community. The first 16 units of transition housing at the old motel opened last month.

With shelter beds, support staff and transitional housing units all in one complex PDSCL hopes to make contact with those on the streets and seamlessly transition them into a more stable home.

“That’s the idea. To have that continuum of housing and support services. Not just on that particular site, but throughout our entire organization, we can support people as they come off the street,” Laing said, adding they look forward to being “good neighbours” in their new neighbourhood.

BC Housing spent $4M to purchase the site and is spending another $4.5M to convert it.

There are several more months of renovations still to take place at Compass Court to add another 26 units of transition housing. Closer to downtown, a modular 62-unit BC Housing development is starting to take shape.

Two more BC Housing projects for working families and seniors are also nearly complete on Backstreet Blvd. and Brunswick St.

“There are a lot of projects to come online, starting now and over the next six months. This is when all the work has started to come to fruition and we should see some really big improvements to the homeless situation,” Laing said.