Lots of people Inn from the Cold

We've been open three nights now and we'll likely be open for at least two more. Six people the first night, twelve the second, eight last night: New Year's Eve. Five people were new this season and two had never stayed in a shelter before anywhere.

Once again, we had to jockey for space with other groups who use St Alban. This time a blood donor clinic completely filled the main room that we normally use for sleeping for two straight days, leaving their equipment overnight, so we set up the mats in the church and served meals in the lounge after the clinic closed. At one point during dinner, I went back to the church and found it empty except for one of our guests down on one knee in front of the altar. He told me later that he hadn't prayed in years, but he'd been hit by a car that day while riding his bike and being inside the church at St Alban that same day prompted him to give thanks for being alive.

The lack of a women's shelter in Richmond continues to be painfully obvious. The same night we were in the church, a woman who was quite well dressed arrived. She'd been directed to our shelter by the RCMP. Her English was weak, but we learned she'd been kicked out of her house by her husband. Everyone did their best to make her feel safe and welcome (we had two women staff on that evening, and we offered her a private area to sleep), but it was not the right place for her and she left before lights out.

Today's the start of a new year and there are signs of new, positive changes for a few of our regulars. Two are seriously considering detox or recovery houses and another just received word that he's qualified for social assistance in January. The big news is one man is moving into permanent housing starting next week, as he's over 55 and that bumps up his eligibility. He's been tenting in a Richmond park for over a year with another regular guest. They have quite a camp set up there: one small tent for each of them and a third large tent they call the garage where then store their gear and work on their bikes. They are hidden from public view, but the RCMP know they are there and check up on them. His buddy does not meet the same criteria for this kind of housing, but his advocate is trying to find a way to get housing for him too.

Volunteers and staff continue to make the Inn a warm and welcome place to spend the night. Kudos to everyone. Our overnight staff (Anneliese, Dasha, Frank, Hugh, James, Kay and Norm) are hired to ensure the safety and security of guests and volunteers but they spend most of their time being there for our guests and I think this person to person interaction is one of the shelter's biggest gifts.

Happy New Year everyone. May 2011 be your best year ever.

Looks like we'll be able to open again soon

Weather forecast is calling for a change to colder weather for the next couple of days, so it looks like we'll open the shelter tomorrow night (Wed night) and likely stay open for 2 or 3 nights.  

One complication is that there's a blood donor clinic at St Alban Thursday and Friday this week.  They leave their equipment set up overnight, so we'll have to workaround them.   Makes for a great time to come by the shelter, to give blood or to give some time to volunteer.

A Plan to Make Homelessness history

Today's New York Times had an interesting article recently entitled "A Plan to make Homelessness History" http://nyti.ms/dKCyna   Worth a read.  It refers to a program in the US called "100,000 Homes" which has a goal of placing 100,000 chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing by July 2013.  They started less than 6 months ago and have placed almost 7,000 already, on track for 100,000 by 2013.  The article reports that when cities decide to make a concerted effort to reduce homelessness, they succeed.  


Large cities like New York and LA are on board as are smaller ones like Norfolk VA (population 230,000) and Wichita Kansas, that aren't much bigger than Richmond.

Very cold today, but still not quite enough to open. Hoping for tomorrow.

Today's combination of rain, wind and low temps made for very miserable weather.  I was out in it for a few hours today -- running errands on my bike and walking -- and it definitely felt bitterly cold, but unfortunately, to declare an Extreme Weather Alert we can't rely on how cold it feels, we have to base it on information available from weather agencies.  We mainly use three sources: Environment Canada, the Weather Network (localized for Richmond) and a private forecasting service the city has under contract for the winter that provides us with a customized forecast for Richmond daily.  None are predicting temperatures to go below freezing tonight, so we're not opening.


While I was out doing my errands, I bumped into a couple men near one of the bottle depots who have stayed at the shelter and I told them we wouldn't be open tonight, but possibly tomorrow. One had lost the gloves we'd given him a couple weeks ago, so I went over to St Alban to get him another pair and brought back a bag full of gloves, scarves, toques in case I ran into more people who could use them. Sure enough, when I returned, there were two women hanging around outside the depot -- neither of whom I'd met before. They were friends of the men who'd stayed with us (both men had now vanished).  One woman  gratefully accepted a scarf, toque and gloves -- she was only wearing a hooded coat for protection from the weather -- and told me she'd be spending the night with her sister.   The other women had stayed at the shelter last year, but had a place to live now in Vancouver. 


I eventually caught up with the two guys who've been staying with us, just across the street from the depot, at a place they often spend the night called "the concrete jungle."  It's fairly well protected from the elements -- concrete roof,  concrete on three sides and big garbage bins on the fourth side -- they had a small fire going and they had large duvets nearby that we'd handed out when they last left.   The gloves fit and when I left, they looked like they'll be okay for another night out in the cold.


Hopefully, we'll open tomorrow night.

Still not quite cold enough to open

The weather has been flirting with sub-zero recently, but not quite enough  to declare an extreme weather alert.  We monitor the various weather forecasts at least daily and update our hotline accordingly.

In the meantime, activities at and around the shelter continue.   Last night was the third and final gift bag decorating session, held in the lounge at St Alban.   The bags have made their appearance at two venues so far and this Sunday will be at St Joseph The Worker parish.   They've help raise hundreds of dollars so far.  We've also added pictures of the bags to the "Donate" portion of the website, allowing people to receive these special thank-yous if  they donate in person at the shelter.  If anyone would like to host a small fundraising session, based on these bags, just reply back to this email.  You'll get a small kit with a set of bags, a couple signs to post and a sheet to record names for tax receipts.  

People have also been working in the background gathering donations of goods or money from organizations (such as Starbucks) and co-workers (such as Richmond Public Health, where a siimple note resulted in a coffee can full of cash donations).   

We've also taken the opportunity to do some training.  Last Saturday, five staff and volunteers attended a Level 1 Foodsafe course at Gilmore United.   Gilmore United host another weekly community meal here in Richmond and they delivered the course to their own volunteers, opening up a few spaces for us.    And this  past Monday evening, Warren from our shelter committee provided basic  first aid training to our overnight staff.  He geared the trianing specifically to the types of situations we are most likely to encounter.    Both courses were excellent.

People have been asking about what's happening at the shelter for Christmas.  Answer: if there's an extreme weather alert, we'll be open.  Otherwise, we won't be open.  We have been accumulating some small gifts for our guests (scarfs, underwear, sox) in anticipation that we might open.  (And Barry has a frozen turkey ready).    If we don't open right at Christmas, we'll have the turkey and give the gifts at the next available opportunity.    If anyone would like to source or offer up some small gift items (lighters, chocolate, etc) reply back and we'll arrange drop off or pickup.