The arrival of strong rain and wind storms in mid-October has caught Victoria's homeless shelters off guard. They usually aim to open more beds in November and are still scrambling to hire and train staff. As a result Our Place was the only shelter open during Wednesday night's rain and wind storm. But it still wasn't enough according to Executive Director Don Evans:
"Yeah, everybody was scrambling and is still hiring staff. The Native Friendship Centre is still hiring staff. Salvation Army is doing renovations and they are looking for another location. The Downtown Community Centre isn't ready to open up yet as well. They'll open on November 1st. So we turned away about 26 people at First Met last night."
Evans says there were 30 beds open at Our Place Wednesday night, and he hopes there will be enough staff for 50 beds Thursday night. The Salvation Army had it's warming station open for hot coffee, but Our Place couldn't open theirs because they didn't have enough volunteers.
Our Place, the Salvation Army and Native Friendship Centre all need volunteers and donations of rain gear.