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By Lloyd Mackey
THEY call them mats.
There have been 30 of them laid each evening, this past
winter, on the floor of a multipurpose room in the Salvation Army’s
Addiction and Rehabilitation Centre, just across the street from the
Johnston Street Bridge in downtown Victoria.
Each mat has provided a place for one person to sleep
on a cold and/or wet winter night. And there were an unusually high number
of such nights in the city during this past winter. This has created a
logistical challenge for some of the Sally Ann’s personnel.
Major Brian Venables, public relations director for the
Army’s British Columbia division, says that when the decision was
made to add the mats, the idea was simply to respond to what was “a
growing number of homeless people who need a place to sleep in the
city’s core.”
The centre, which already has 150 beds and provides
three meals and a shower under an emergency cold/wet weather program, has
been taxed to the edge – thus the need for the mats.
But Venables says the unusually long cold snap, over
Christmas, meant the facilities were crowded even more, as people who
usually might survive outside were forced indoors.
The extra staff, meal and water load, estimated at a
straight-line 20 percent, is covered through the SA agreement with
B.C. Housing.
But the thing that Venables finds distressing, is the
how young are many of the users – both men and women – of
the extra places to sleep.
“It used to be that the people using our
facilities were older men. Now it is common to be working with people in
the 23 – 25 age range – and even younger,
into their teens.”
But he adds, quickly that “it is always a
pleasure to help turn them around.”
Venables says that he would like BCCN readers to know there are many
volunteer opportunities, both in the kitchen and serving the people at the
centre, and in providing music and the spoken word at the daily chapel
services.
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“I would encourage churches to arrange times for
their young people to come work with us. It would give them an excellent
opportunity to see what it is like to live this way – perhaps a
preventative measure.”
The centre itself takes in homeless people, as long as
they are sober. And there is a drug rehab residence on top floor for
recovering addicts, which offers treatment programs.
The Salvation Army also has a church in Victoria West,
High Point, which takes in some overnighters under the emergency program.
And they work collaboratively, as well, with the
Anglican Church of St. John the Divine and Our Place, to see that every
possible person is in out of the cold.
In addition to the emergency help, the centre offers a
listening ear, support and spiritual counseling to residents and drop-ins,
according to its promotional literature.
They also supply Bibles and Christian literature for
their residents.
As well, the centre offers drop in programs at the
Christian Friendship Room with coffee and refreshments. Community meals are
served Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at noon. A church service is
held every Sunday morning and morning devotions are held throughout the
week.
For further info: salvationarmycfs.com.
March 2009
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