People in need of a warm, safe place to go during the months ahead will have access to additional emergency shelter spaces through the provincial government’s temporary and extreme weather response shelter programs.

There are only two temporary shelters in the Kootenays – in Cranbrook and Trail.

“During the colder months, it’s important that people experiencing homelessness in our province know that there is a place they can go to get warm and find supports and services that can help them stabilize their lives,” said Selina Robinson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

This season, the province will open almost 1,355 temporary shelter spaces, including 24 in Cranbrook and six in Trail, and over 820 extreme weather response shelter spaces. These emergency shelters supplement the more than 2,000 permanent, year-round emergency shelter spaces.

The province will continue to work with municipalities and communities to increase temporary and extreme weather spaces this winter, noted a Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing media release.

Temporary shelters will be open every night for the season from Nov. 1 until March 31, 2020. Individual communities establish a plan of the weather conditions that warrant an extreme weather alert and determine the number of spaces to activate on a given night, depending on the capacity of existing shelters and the estimated need, the ministry pointed out.

These emergency shelter programs work with communities and non-profits throughout B.C. to provide temporary but immediate places to stay for anyone who is experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

The Cranbrook shelter is located at 533 Slater Road (24 spaces) and Trail’s is at 1458 Bay Ave. (six spaces).

See a map of permanent and temporary shelters in B.C.

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