Inuvik's wet shelter seeks new home after Anglican church backs out

Inuvik's Anglican church says it can no longer house the town's wet shelter because it says the centre is too costly and they fear the shelter might be doing more harm than good to some clients.

"It was a hard decision to make for the church," Pastor Stephen Martin of Inuvik's Anglican church says.

Commonly called the emergency warming centre, the shelter has been running for two years with the goal of providing emergency shelter for the town's homeless population during the cold months when the temperatures dip dangerously low.

The church says it welcomed the shelter because they thought it could offer a warm place to some of the town's most vulnerable without creating too much of a financial burden.

However, rising heating and electricity costs meant the church could no longer affordably provide the space.

"We weren't renting the thing as a money maker or a fundraiser for us. We were doing it to take care of the basic needs," Martin says.

Martin says the shelter also needs a new location that could provide more amenities to clients, such as showers and laundry facilities.

"We may give (them) clean clothes but if you haven't had a shower in a few days. How is that dignified to a person?"   

Helping or enabling?

The Anglican pastor says the shelter's board needs to ask tough questions, like whether the shelter is really helping its clients, or enabling their addictions. 

"Second year in, we are watching people make choices, saying: 'we can go out and party tonight. Our parents might not let us in, but the homeless shelter will,'" says Martin. "So we really weren't meeting the needs of the homeless community. We were also getting all these people who want to go out and party and have a place to stay."

Martin says as the shelter continues to operate, the board will need to talk about having proper counselling services for people who are suffering from addictions. 

Inuvik's community organizations also need to take a greater interest in the shelter, says Martin, adding that the burden of the shelter was in the hands of a few volunteers.

"The Gwich'in and Inuvialuit communities need to step up," he says, "because these are their people."

Martin says the shelter needs help to make sure that responsible staff is being recruited, that they are trained properly and that frequent counselling services are being provided. 

"Inuvik still needs a program like this in the community," says Martin. "But it also needs a community approach to it."