Dec 8, 9 activation

We're closing tonight after a two day activation. Seven guests last night, although 1 left after dinner and 2 arrived just before breakfast. Two people new to the shelter, including one woman, our first woman of this season.

We closed out with a mega-breakfast, like we've never served before and it was all consumed like I've never seen before. It started innocently enough -- we planned to serve porridge (three of the volunteers are from Scotland, so that was a given) and pancakes, but I then I decided to add a protein, so we scrambled a dozen eggs. I pretty much knew we'd be closing, so we emptied the fridge of leftovers: fried up potatoes and ham from last night, heated up a large bowl of baked beans from yesterday's breakfast, made toast of the bread that wouldn't survive another day. We set out a bowl of yogurt and berries from last night's desert and sliced oranges. After all that was polished off, someone asked if we had any more cheerios left from yesterday's breakfast! We did and served him a bowlful. So heartwarming to see the contented look on people's faces as they ate what for many would be their only hot meal of the day. Two left pushing shopping carts, two on bikes and the others on foot.

I just now finished my rounds of taking down the extreme weather posters at the bottle depots and saw two of our guests, one sitting on the sidewalk out front of Brighouse station, panhandling, and the other riding his bike with a few cans he'd already collected. I'm glad their bellies are full of nourishing food.

Thanks to everyone who participated the past two days: coming in and cooking, socializing, cleaning up and those standing by for the next time we open up -- your efforts and presence really makes a difference in our guests' lives.

Best wishes to all and Happy Hanukkah. (I will save my Merry Christmas, hoping we'll open again near the 25th.)

Pausing to remember

Sunday, Nov 11 was one of those cold, grey days typical of Remembrance Day.   My wife Jan and I attended the service at the cenotaph, walking there from home to stand alongside people of all ages, outside in the elements,  pausing to remember the battles fought,  the lives lost,  and the peace we sometimes take for granted. It's a powerful experience that draws us back each year.

For many of those assembled, it was probably the coldest hour they'll spend all year.  Right after the ceremony, people hustled back to the warmth of their cars and homes.  I couldn't help thinking of our homeless citizens, knowing they spend the majority of their lives outside, battling the elements, battling poverty, with no warm home awaiting their return.    Many also battle addictions and mental illness, but unlike the wars our honoured vets fought, street battles rarely result in peace.  Lives are lost in the streets, not necessarily in the sense of death, but a loss of who they are or where they are going.  Fortunately, there's hope for those who wander the streets: hope they can find their way again through some life-altering change (housing is found, an addiction is in recovery, a mental illness stabilizes, a job is found) allowing them to return to a more normal life, with a warm home awaiting their return.

Until one of those life altering changes happens, one of the few hopes for a warm place to sleep is an extreme weather alert, and on this cold, wet Remembrance Day, that's exactly what happened.

Posters announcing the alert went up; shelter volunteers and staff were mustered; the furnace in the big hall at St Alban was fired up; sleeping mats and blankets were laid out and kitchen volunteers arrived and started filling the building with the aromas of homemade shepherd's pie and apple crumble.

So, at least for this one cold night in November, there was a warm place, a temporary home of sorts, for  a few of our street veterans.

I'm not suggesting we honour our street vets in the same way we honour our war vets, but I am suggesting we pause for a moment and remember the women and men who have no home and most likely are outside right now as you read this.

Familiar faces

Nov 1 marked the start of the extreme weather shelter season and we are all set to open once the temperature drops.   Most of our volunteers are returning from last year and we'll also be welcoming some new volunteers to the team -- we held an orientation session for new volunteers last week. Grace, our food coordinator, is back again, and all of our overnight staff and steering committee members are veterans from previous seasons.

In terms of returning guests, my expectation is that most guests will be new to the shelter this year, as was the case last season,  when 27 of the 36 guests we sheltered during the season were new.  At least nine of last year's guests are now in housing and likely more that I've lost touch with.  "Kip" has returned to work as a cook at a high-end restaurant at the airport.   "Dorothy" who had been living in a camper is now in a proper apartment.   "Will" is still in the basement suite he rented with "Maurice" last February, with a new roommate.  "Bud", "Buddy" and "Neil" are all sharing a house together with "Wally" from the previous season and two other formerly homeless individuals.   "Carlos" who used to be a teacher, and always wore a tie, sent us a nice letter thanking us for our hospitality along with a donation of $50 to the shelter.  

And sadly, two of last season's guests passed away earlier this year: "Maurice" at the age of 67 in February and "Milton" at the age of 56 in April.   Both were regulars at the shelter, both were an integral part of the community that formed each night we were open and both will be dearly missed.   We held a service for Maurice in March at St Alban Church and Milton's family held one for him, in June, in his hometown of London Ontario.  May they rest in peace.

Volunteer Training Workshop

Wed, Sept 26, we hosted a volunteer training workshop at the Richmond Food Bank.    The workshop familiarized volunteers with the community we serve, with an emphasis on communications, conflict resolution, mental health and addictions.

It was an excellent session, featuring five different speakers from local Richmond addictions and mental health organizations.

The session was originally aimed at volunteers for the new Drop-in Centre at St. Alban, but we decided the workshop would be extremely valuable to volunteers from organizations which target the same population as the drop-in centre.  So, we opened up the invite to volunteers from the Food Bank, where each week over 500 families file through this same room to pick up their groceries,  the weekly Community Meal at St Alban where over 150 folks are served dinner each week and the  Shelter  where dozens are given a warm place to sleep and hot meals each winter.

In all, over fifty volunteers filled the room and were treated to five excellent, heartfelt presentations from our guest speakers:

Barbara Bawlf - Vancouver Coastal Health/Richmond Mental Health Consumers and Friends

Rick Dubras - Richmond Addiction Services

Barbara Fee  - Canadian Mental Health Association

Danny Taylor - Richmond Addiction Services

Randy Vance - Vancouver Coastal Health

The evening was filled with compassion and warmth, something we hope our guests will feel at the shelter.

Stats for the 2011/2012 shelter season

March 31st marks the end of the Extreme Weather shelter season.  We'll reopen again once the season resumes in November.

The winter was milder than last year and even though we tried to push the boundaries of the extreme weather criteria so we'd open more, we were open only 29 nights compared to last year's 35. Even with less nights open, we saw almost as many unique individuals: 36 this year, compared to 37 last.    We welcomed four couples (only one couple last year) and eight women (up from four last year).  

We recorded 181 bed nights, and served over 500 meals.  The total number of guests per night was down by an average of one person per night.  Lower numbers for people needing shelter is a good thing, although one of our regular guests from last year is in long term care, so that person would have evened the averages.

At least four guests secured permanent housing this season and likely more that we don't know about.  Since we don't have a permanent presence, and most of our guests don't have a permanent location, it's hard to stay in touch to see how folks are doing.   Perhaps the most surprising statistic is that of the 36 people we saw this season, we only saw 9 of them last season.  So twenty-seven people stayed at the shelter for the first time ever.  It seems as people find homes, more find themselves homeless.

I'd like to thank all those who supported the shelter this season, those who donated food and cash and clothing, those who came to the shelter to make and serve incredible meals (64 folks helped here), our overnight staff and our committee members.   Together, you've helped make the Inn a very welcoming place, a place many of our guests thought of as home.