Trail’s Community Action Team is sounding the alarm that an emergency overnight shelter or warming centre may not operate in the city this year.
Chair Tammy McLean said her group has been meeting since September with the City of Trail, BC Housing, Interior Health, and ANKORS and expected to operate a warming centre in the basement of the United Church, as had been done for the previous two winters.
Each year the space has been subject to a fire inspection, but McLean said this time a building inspector also came along and deemed the space inappropriate for an emergency centre. She said the inspector gave the space the same classification as a care facility, which requires sprinklers.
The church doesn’t have sprinklers. McLean said they found another space behind the Skills Centre, but it doesn’t have sprinklers either, “so we’re a bit dead in the water.”
McLean said the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness could potentially fund a warming centre. However, it would only operate during the daytime.
“So I’m just feeling in a really difficult spot to mount a response for and house folks when the temperatures get to be minus-10,” she said.
McLean said a point-in-time homelessness count a month and a half ago found 67 people in Trail who were unhoused, of whom 25 have access to the shelter on Riverside Avenue, but that leaves another 40 people who could use a warming centre.
Such a centre would only be activated when the temperature is below minus-10, although McLean added “it’s pretty miserable when it’s wet right now at plus two or minus three.”
McLean, who is a nurse practitioner, said the situation is made worse by toxic drugs and a lack of housing. “The systems meant to support people who find themselves in pretty precarious situations are not rising to the occasion to meet the need,” she said.
McLean says in previous years, the warming centre has had three staff overnight who do regular fire rounds and ensure people are not overdosing. They also treat wounds, hypothermia, and otherwise prevent people from needing to go to the hospital.
“It’s an untenable situation that really needs to be looked at from a policy and governmental point of view,” she said. “How are we letting people fall through the cracks?”
“What we need is an entire system that says, ‘this is important that people don’t die in cold, freezing weather. And we’re going to provide a response that allows people to come in, get rest, get food, have a shower, access bathrooms, and be treated as human beings worthy of that kind of support.'”
She said the community is fortunate this winter has been so mild, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t suffering outdoors. And she said if temperatures do plunge, there will be a “real crisis that’s going to put tremendous suffering upon vulnerable people and emergency systems as well.”
McLean said her group is calling on the RDKB to reconsider its classification of emergency warming centres, or advocate to the provincial government to amend the BC Building Code so warming centres don’t have to meet the same standards as care facilities.
The Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs told us that its staff are following up with local government to discuss safety concerns related to the building code.
We have also asked the RDKB for comment.
Trail city council discussed the issue Monday. Councillor Nick Cashol suggested they should take any opportunity to open a warming centre, even if it doesn’t come with beds.
Mayor Colleen Jones said they have explored many options, but the sprinkler requirement remains a stumbling block.
“In a community like ours, a lot of our buildings are old,” she said. “A lot of them don’t have sprinkler systems that the building code requires.”
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