New warming centre looks to address shelter shortage crisis in Brandon
CBC
When Chelsea Cote is on the hunt for a safe place to stay in Brandon, the Samaritan House Ministries Safe and Warm shelter is usually her chosen destination.
The shelter in the southwestern Manitoba city has created a community that feels like a home, she says.
"I made a lot of friends here," Cote said. "This is our home now."
However, since late October there has been no guarantee of finding a safe place there, after the shelter hit its capacity limit for the first time since opening in 2013.
To address the shelter space shortage, Safe and Warm officially opened "The Q," an overflow warming shelter, on Thursday.
The new warming space was used for the first time to take in overflow clients on Friday, Samaritan House Ministries executive director Barbara McNish said.
As a warming centre, The Q has chairs and blankets for people to stay "snug and warm," she said, but it doesn't offer anywhere to sleep.
But operating on the same hours as the overnight Safe and Warm shelter — 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. — the new warming centre will provide somewhere to go if the shelter space passes its 41-client capacity.
"It's cold. People are not always able to find a safe and warm place," said McNish, which can be deadly in Manitoba's winter chill.
"If we're at capacity, we have The Q."
In October, Samaritan House Ministries — which runs the Safe and Warm shelter — held an emergency meeting to address its shelter bed capacity crisis, which created a precarious situation for those that use its services, said McNish.
On some nights, the shelter sees more than 60 people drop in — but no more than 41 can use the facility at a time, she said.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shelter has seen 1,220 distinct visitors use its services — a significant number in a city of just over 51,000.
For the current year up to Nov. 10, the shelter shelter had seen 443 unique visitors.
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