When Melanie MacDonald heard the emergency shelter component was being removed from the revised Elliott Street Supportive Housing project, things went dark.
The Quesnel Shelter & Support Society (QSSS) executive director and Seasons House operator says the society worked toward the new facility on Elliott Street with BC Housing for nearly five years.
“That new facility was the light at the end of the tunnel for us.”
MacDonald says they began looking at fixing Seasons House with BC Housing nearly five years ago, but the Crown corporation determined it would to be too expensive to repair the buildings.
She adds there are a number reasons why QSSS tried to find a new home for the emergency shelter.
There are over capacity issues; the building is ready to be condemned; there’s not enough space to meet the needs of the people QSSS serves, or staff; and the location is terrible for the society, guests and community, she explains.
MacDonald notes that at the beginning of the process, QSSS suggested the emergency shelter be a separate facility and not part of a supportive housing complex.
“That’s a good continuum of housing, but the province doesn’t normally go down that road because it’s not cost effective. So they often combine those services in one building.
“Now, however, the focus is getting the supportive housing facility built, and the emergency shelter is separate. We’re being told that we’re starting all over again and we need to find a new location for the shelter.”
Current problems
MacDonald says the shelter can’t stay at Seasons House because “it really is condemnable.”
According to the QSSS executive director, the search for a new facility began when they tried to get a donated stove for the kitchen hooked up, but the roof was too rotten to run piping for an exhaust fan.
“And with this year’s big snow fall, we’ve had major problems with leaking. I had to get a roofing company come in because water was pouring into the kitchen.
“They can’t proceed with the roof repairs at this point because when they got down to the sheeting, it is covered in black mould. The insulation and rafters are covered in black mould and it’s probably down to the ceiling – it’s so unhealthy.”
Housing needs
MacDonald adds their most vulnerable mentally ill and addicted people are sleeping in chairs, night after night.
“We need housing for them; it’s housing first. I’m saddened by how this has unfolded.
“I think we have to push [the new emergency shelter] forward because we just can’t stay in [Seasons House] for another five years.”
She adds the new facility has to have a minimum of 10 emergency shelter beds, which Seasons House has now, but QSSS would probably like to see more.
The executive director says she hopes over-capacity people at Seasons House would be able to be transferred to the supportive housing facility once it’s built – as long as the operator is willing to work with that population.
“If we’re not the successful operator for [Elliott Street]… we’ve really struggled to find facilities to take in the population we serve.”
Seasons House currently has eight transitional housing units where people can stay in for up to three years, and QSSS would like to see that number maintained.
“With all of the changes in the project, we have no commitment or understanding of how that’s going to unfold in the future.”
Read more: Seasons House to stay open as supportive housing project modified
Broken heart
MacDonald says the whole situation is breaking her heart.
“It’s been a long road. We’re trying to work out of [Seasons House] with this growing population of homeless people with growing and complex needs in the middle of a public health emergency [opioid crisis].
“Staff reversed 43 overdoses in the last year. They have prevented 43 people from dying on site, in our back alleys and on the river bank.”
Noting it’s incredibly hard work, she says the impact of this issue is having on the community ten-fold.
“Our society really feels it, and the deplorable lack of mental health, addiction and health-care services for the people we serve has been awful.
“We have worked really hard over the last couple of years to make sure we have some healthcare services for people… because people are dying.”
MacDonald notes they’ve partnered with a couple of doctors who travel from Williams Lake to hold a clinic at Seasons House on Fridays. There are other services being offered at the shelter, too.
“We’ve worked really hard to attract services and service providers because the reality is the stigma and discrimination this population faces often means there not welcome in different healthcare settings.”
It’s a challenging population to work with, she says, adding the shelter is the last door.
“Best practices and research show to the best way to work with this population is to have the services come to them.”
Location search
“We thought we found a really good location on Elliott Street.”
After looking at a number of facilities over the past few years, MacDonald says the Grace Inn was one and the Fraser Bridge Inn was another.
She adds they also looked to see if there was land where a facility could be built, but Elliott Street was the most appropriate place for the shelter.
“At this point, I’m not sure where the future for the shelter stands and where we will go. “But what I do know is [the shelter] needs to be close to services because we serve a lot of disabled people in wheelchairs and scooters, so it needs to be close to the hospital and stores and it needs to be accessible for them.”