Broad View United

Saanich church to serve as extreme-weather shelter this winter

Rev. Mark Green, co-lead minister of Broad View United, takes a break from moving a room partition in the lower hall of the church on St. Aidan’s Street, which will serve as a 20-mat emergency weather shelter in Saanich this winter. MICHAEL JOHN LO, TIMES COLONIST
Rev. Mark Green said Broad View United, off Cedar Hill Cross Road and Shelbourne, wanted to host the shelter out of “compassion for other human beings.”

When the temperature drops sharply or weather warnings are posted this winter, a church just off Shelbourne and Cedar Hill Cross Road will open its doors as Saanich’s first extreme-weather shelter.

Rev. Mark Green said Broad View United decided to host the 20-mat shelter out of the “simple place of compassion for other human beings.”

People often think homelessness in the capital region is limited to Pandora Avenue and other parts of downtown Victoria, but Green said people also live rough in Saanich, sleeping in cars or tents near Colquitz Creek and other more secluded, wooded areas in the district.

“We want to make sure that they get a warm meal, a chance to get clean, and have a warm place to sleep.”

The temporary shelter is in addition to the 25-space shelter at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre in the Gorge Tillicum neighbourhood, which secured funding for an additional 25 winter shelter spaces this year.

Our Place Society has been contracted to staff the extreme-weather shelter at Broad View United, which will open when temperatures dip near or below freezing, or when weather warnings are in place.

The church, at 3703 St. Aidan’s St., is anticipating the shelter will open seven to 10 times this winter.

Our Place spokesperson Grant McKenzie said emergency-weather shelters are meant to be stop-gap measures to help people survive nights when cold and wet weather could lead to loss of extremities to frostbite or make existing medical issues worse.

Emergency weather shelters are usually just mats on the floor, and people are often woken up early in the morning and ushered outdoors, usually while it’s still dark out, he said.

But in the case of Broad View United, church volunteers will provide extra hands for clean-up, as well as resources that aren’t paid for by the province.

Plans currently call for breakfast, a packed lunch, refreshments and clean clothes.

“It’s fantastic to work with an organization that really wants to treat the people coming in with dignity and respect,” McKenzie said.

Ann Maffey, a long-time United Church member, will be among the volunteers welcoming people into the lower hall of Broad View United when the shelter is open. “To expect any human being to sleep outside in extreme weather is just beyond me,” she said. “It’s not right.”

Mark Porter, another church volunteer, said faith communities have a duty to provide practical, compassionate support for those living on the streets. “Governments play an important role, but they’re not the only ones that are going to fix it,” said Porter, a recently retired WestJet executive.

Broad View United, a 650-household church that came out of the amalgamation of United Church congregations in Saanich, as well as the First Metropolitan United Church in Victoria, has had a history of being proactive on social issues, including homelessness.

Green said that over his 20-plus years of ministering in Saanich, he’s seen the number of homeless people in Saanich grow, particularly seniors living in cars after losing stable housing.

The church ran a small “safe parking” initiative in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic for people looking for a space to spend the night, but had to close it when they realized it was contravening district bylaws, and issues with a temporary shelter at the former Mount Tolmie Hospital began spilling into the neighbourhood, he said.

“We were prepared to keep working with it, but some of the neighbours got anxious, so we shut it down,” he said.

Green has fielded similar concerns about the emergency-weather shelter, but those have largely been allayed once people understand the shelter is only expected to open seven to 10 times a year, he said.

Green said Broad View United began planning for the shelter years ago.

During a major 18-month renovation to its 27,000-square-foot building on St. Aidan’s Street, the church intentionally designed the lower hall to be suitable for shelter use if needed.

It has its own separate entrance, kitchen and bathroom facilities and access to the rest of the building is controlled.

The hall is often used by community groups, including for meetings of the local neighbourhood association, tai chi classes, dance classes, ping pong and children’s play groups.

Broad View United spent about a year going through the regulations and agreements with B.C. Housing and its partners to ensure it could provide a safe place for people to spend the night, Green said.

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