Castlegar City Council gave approval at the committee level for a $10,000 funding request from Castlegar Community Services (CCS) to extend local outreach services for three months.
The request is to help cover the cost of services to support individuals experiencing homelessness by providing access to basic needs, connections with resources, and supports for relocation and encampment clean-up.
The city estimates that the number of residents in the community that are functionally unhoused or living in precarious housing circumstances has doubled in the last two years.
BC Housing has provided funds to keep Castlegar’s current winter shelter open until the new shelter opens, but this funding does not extend to outreach services.
BC Housing has said that the new 20-bed shelter planned for 2245 6th Ave. will open before the end of the year, but renovation construction is just beginning.
According a staff report in the July 14 council agenda, CCS has sufficient surplus to continue outreach services throughout the summer and early fall. The additional funding would allow them to extend services until the end of February to bridge the transitory period between the closing of the current emergency shelter and the services it offers and the opening of the new shelter location.
The funding will help cover a two-person outreach team and manager on shift three days per week, supplies and refreshments to support relocation and resourcing, insurance, vehicle fuel, office expenses, and administration.
The city says outreach services help alleviate non-emergency calls to emergency response agencies.
Non-emergency calls to emergency response agencies cost communities through staff wages, apparatus, and time taken away from competing priorities. These are also reflected through increased 911 call volumes to RCMP, BC Ambulance, the Castlegar Fire Department and complaints made to bylaw enforcement staff.
The $10,000 will be taken from operational surplus. It is anticipated that the outreach services will result in cost savings for the city under protective services, bylaw enforcement, and operations.
Final approval is scheduled for the Aug. 11 regular council meeting.
