Plans for a new warming center is being drawn up by Nanaimo’s local non-profits.
“The nonprofit community itself is looking at finding ways to augment that service straight away,” said Bill Corsan, Director of Community Development for the City of Nanaimo. “At the moment, certainly, other providers are providing opportunities for people to pop in and and get supplies as needed— but we don’t actually have a warming center up and running right now.”
Nanaimo’s only warming center was forced to shut down last week, and Corsan says that there are plans to open something ‘in the near future.’
“I expect something will be up and running quickly. Our nonprofits are working to fill those gaps, so I’d expect to see something happen in the very near future. We’re also working on what we call the ‘extreme weather shelter’ which is for when the temperatures get below two degrees cold out, so that’s another option for a daytime warming center when it’s extremely cold outside.”
The new warming center would be run by another nonprofit.
In the meantime, there is the evening shelter at St. Peters and the Unitarian shelter on Townsite RD, which can be temporarily used to warm people up.
The old shelter was also open in the summer and fall, and had capacity for eight people at one time.
