The Sea to Sky Corridor's only long-term women's and children's shelter is being forced to turn clients away.
On Sunday (Sept. 29), Pearl's Place Transition House's six beds were full and an employee at the Squamish safe house scrambled to find safety outside the community for a young mother and her baby who turned up at the shelter's doors, officials with the Howe Sound Women's Centre Society (HSWCS) said in a statement issued on Thursday (Oct. 3).
The society's facility provides women and children throughout the corridor a 30-day stay. In Pemberton, the society runs a 10-day facility for women impacted by abuse. But there's no women's shelter in Whistler, Sheila Allen, the women's society executive director, told The Chief on Friday (Oct. 4). As a result, many women within the program get shuffled down the corridor from one safe house to the next, she said.
I honestly feel like there is a need for a transition house in Whistler, she said, noting that taking a person out of their community puts their life on hold.
In 2006 the opening year for the transition house 148 women and 122 children were referred to Pearl's Place and 29 women and 29 children accessed the program. In the first nine months of this year, the house received 142 referrals for women and 60 for children, with 44 women and 24 children housed at the facility.
While the shelter bursting at its seams, provincial funding for the program has been stagnant since 2007, Allen said. The society is calling on officials to pour emergency money into the shelter, increasing the bed count from six to eight. They also want to beef up the Pemberton safe home, hiring a full-time coordinator position and support workers, such as one to provide clinical supervision.
With mental health facilities closing down, there's more and more pressure on us, Allen added. We are not nurses and doctors.
Various Squamish community organizations are looking to build or expand supportive housing, including the Sea to Sky Community Services Society's downtown Centrepoint project. There may be possibilities to partner up, but that won't help unless there's money to operate a new or expanded space, Allen said.
Stay tuned to The Chief for more on this developing story.
