The Connect Warming Centre will be in place for another year on Cliffe Avenue, and a washroom may also be installed in the future.
Courtenay council voted unanimously to approve the lease extension this week. It is the third time the space’s lease has been renewed and it can be renewed a total of five times. It has been operating at 685 Cliffe Ave since 2019, providing services to those experiencing homelessness, extreme weather shelter and emergency shelter.
Following renovations over the years, the space now provides 33 shelter beds per night year-round, with funding from BC Housing.
The city says the location of Connect and its services are often associated with rising community concerns with homelessness and associated impacts of mental illness and substance use harms. However, they add that without its services, the city would see a greater number of unsheltered individuals in the community and without access to critical services.
“I just think we need to make it really clear to our downtown business community that we recognize the challenges they’re having and that we’re going to continue to work as hard as we can to get a permanent solution that will meet the needs of people that don’t have a place to live,” said councillor Doug Hillian.
Mayor Bob Wells says the Connect Centre is the result of the Business Improvement Association and downtown business concerns and the city is not the only one seeing these issues.
“A lot of it is because of the cost of rentals and then we have all the crises that are going into that, and you throw a pandemic on top and it has seen this rise,” said Wells. “This particular location was supposed to move, it was actually supposed to move years ago and that didn’t happen.”
Wells adds that many conversations they have had with the minister of housing, making it clear that this is a top priority.
Councillor David Frisch added that while the centre is not an ideal solution, there really is not a perfect one.
“If we don’t go ahead and take this opportunity to do our best it’s going to cause a massive problem,” said Frisch.
The city also approved a motion to explore putting in a temporary, separate washroom next to centre to help address public and business concerns about public urination and defecation.
Running a temporary washroom that is fully connected to services (water, electrical, sewage) would cost between $50,000 and $100,000. However, costs could be changed if it is serviced independently.
They add the facility must ensure the health and safety of users and ongoing viability of the space, and require careful consideration of placement because of neighbourhood concerns and building requirements.
