New West Kelowna women's shelter set to open

Photo: Alistair Waters

Kelowna Women's Shelter Society executive director Allison Mclauchlan in the kitchen of the new West Kelowna women's shelter.

The long-awaited project to bring West Kelowna its first women’s shelter, complete with second-stage housing for women and their children fleeing domestic violence and situations, is nearing completion.

On Friday, an official opening ceremony was held in Westbank at the new four-storey building that includes a 10-unit transition house on the ground floor and 32 units of second-stage housing on the three floors above.

The Kelowna Women’s Shelter will operate the facility, which was built by B.C. Housing. KWS executive director Allison Mclauchlan said the building will bring much-needed second-stage housing to the Central Okanagan.

“Kelowna and West Kelowna do not have second-stage housing, so this the first project of its type in the area,” she said.

While the transition house will provide accommodation and services for 30 days (which can be extended), the second-stage housing can provide accommodation for women and children for six months to a year.

The eight-unit Kelowna Women’s Shelter does not have second-stage housing.

Mclauchlan said the new West Kelowna facility will meet a desperate need in the community, where, on average, five women a day are turned away from the Kelowna shelter because it is full.

“We’re always full,” she said. “It never gets easy telling a woman we have no room.”

While shelter staff work with those who turn to it in their time of need but cannot be accommodated to try and find some sort of safe alternate accommodation, Mclauchlan described the inability to help all women who need assistance as “heartbreaking.”

Noting shelters such as the new West Kelowna one address the need for assistance many women and their children face, it does not address the root causes of intimate partner violence and abuse. So, the Kelowna Women’s Shelter will continue its efforts to promote the need to look at the root causes with its annual public information campaigns.

Meanwhile, the new transition house in West Kelowna will be a safe refuge for many women, with space and services for them and their children including a large kitchen, a dining area, a kids’ playroom, a laundry room, quiet area that will include computers for use by residents and a “sacred space” where residents can get away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the building. The shelter is expected to open to residents in the fall.

Mclauchlan said the building will be secure with front desk staff on duty 24 hours a day. The transition house portion was specially designed to provide internal sightlines for mothers and their children to see each other when not together, something very important for those facing the massive upheaval of leaving their homes and seeking shelter elsewhere.

In addition to the new West Kelowna building, another new shelter is also planned for the Rutland area in Kelowna, also to be built by B.C. Housing. and operated by the Kelowna Women’s Shelter Society.

On Friday, a group gathered at the West Kelowna building to celebrate its opening. Among those who attended was Karen Mason, the former executive director of the Kelowna Women’s Shelter Society, and the woman who wrote the proposal for the new West Kelowna shelter and got it approved shortly before she left the position four years ago.

“It warms my heart to see this building completed,” she said, adding she was looking forward to finally getting a peek inside.