Take a look inside Kelowna’s newest homeless shelter

Kelowna’s Gospel Mission will soon open its new Bay Avenue shelter along Ellis Street in the hopes of providing an additional place for the homeless to stay.

Ahead of the opening, the community was invited to tour the new facility at the former BC Tree Fruits warehouse where an additional 60 people can be sheltered.

Those calling the building home will receive three meals a day, access to harm reduction supplies, and other necessities.

Executive Director Carmen Rempel told Kelowna10 the new facility will fill a major need to combat the current situation on the streets.

“We have about 160 people who are living outside sleeping on the streets of Kelowna and it’s very visible and everybody who’s paying attention has noticed this increase that we’ve had,” she said. “Homelessness has tripled in Kelowna in the past year. This is unprecedented and so we’re excited to open these 60 beds so we can relieve some of the pressure we’re feeling on our streets and bring 60 people inside.”

The organization’s existing Leon Avenue shelter accommodates 60 people.

The goal of the open house was to educate the public and reduce the stigma associated with homelessness and, the Gospel Mission hopes, put a lot of misrepresentations aside.

“We want to demystify,” Rempel said. “When we went to talk to the community about putting a shelter here there’s lots of curiosity, there was anxiety and we thought let’s open up our doors, bring the community in and invite them to come and see for themselves what life is like and take away some of the stigma.”

There is currently no opening date for the new building as they work to recruit staff.

“Shelter staff have to be incredibly gifted, skilled individuals with lots of emotional intelligence, de-escalation strategies,” Rempel said. “We have pretty high standards for our staff, who we have coming to work with this very vulnerable population.”