The Canadian Mental Health Association Kelowna will keep open its temporary shelter for two more nights.
The shelter opened earlier this week to help those living on the street find a warm bed for a night.
The temporary shelter is only open for four nights, and the organization says with only 20 beds they’ve had to turn people away the last two days.
CEO Mike Gawliuk put out a statement on the shelter.
“At CMHA Kelowna, we meet the mental health needs of our community and while creating the temporary shelter is the humane thing to do, limited staffing capacity and the use of existing program space limits our ability to extend this temporary solution.
“CMHA Kelowna recognizes the complex needs of unhoused individuals, and we strongly advocate for solutions that move beyond temporary winter shelters, to include an array of housing options with necessary and appropriate supports, including clinical supports in the form of social work, nursing, and clinical counsellors. We look forward to working with our non-profit partners, BC Housing, Interior Health, and the City of Kelowna to move beyond reactionary measures and build real and tenable solutions to the issue of homelessness, and those that are unhoused in our community.”
The shelter is open from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m.
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