City to increase funding for free public showers

The shower program at Caledonia Park started as a temporary solution in 2018 to address the lack of services until a permanent option could be found. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

Nanaimo City Council voted on Wednesday to increase the budget for the free shower program at Caledonia Park.

Christy Wood, social planner for the City of Nanaimo, presented a report with five recommendations to council to review the current shower services and to provide options to expand, maintain or transition the current system.

This comes after a regular council meeting in March 2023, when the Reaching Home Nanaimo Community Advisory Board sent a letter to council requesting them to consider expanding the shower program. This request was based on a presentation the board received from Island Health about the extreme increase in lice among the unhoused population.

The increase will see the 2024 budget increase from $81,300 to $97,750 funded through the strategic infrastructure reserve fund. The recommendation was also approved to add a $25,000 project to next year’s budget to undertake improvements to the building for further temporary use at Caledonia Park. The project would also be funded through the strategic infrastructure reserve fund

The shower program at Caledonia Park started as a temporary solution in 2018 to address the lack of services until a permanent option could be found. As no permanent solution has been found, the program continues at Caledonia Park.

Erika Gagnon is the Operations Manager at the Nanaimo Unitarian Shelter. She explained to CHLY that the additional funding would allow for the shower program to be able to be run for an additional hour from Monday to Friday.

“And what that'll do is it'll allow more people that are either under housed, unhoused or just simply don't have a shower in their current home to be able to come and use us where maybe they aren't at the moment because of their particular circumstance and the time restraint so it'll give us another hour in the public another hour to use that service”

Currently, the showers run from 7 am to 11 am Monday to Friday but the existing hours are not enough and on average they have to turn away one to three people everyday when they close. 

Gagon said that in the wintertime, they see about a 15 per cent increase in the amount of people at the showers. People might also use the showers as a warm place to stay and dry out their wet items.

Currently, many other services use the Caledonia Park showers as a space to meet with those unhoused. Gagon said the showers have become of hub for communicating with those who might not have access to a phone or a permanent address.

“There's a lot of other services, outreach services, we have the COR Team, we have the 7-10 Club, which provides free meals five days a week, both in the form of big lunches that volunteers make up in the shower program hands out. There's consistent health care that is available for a lot of the unhoused who otherwise wouldn't be able to make appointments, and a lot of social workers and outreach workers use it as a meeting place, RCMP will often go down there, check in with Carol if they're looking for someone, or maybe family is looking for someone.” 

At the council meeting, Wood also recommended that the City encourage the First Unitarian Fellowship program to promote the City’s Leisure Economic Access Fund also known as LEAP. The LEAP program supports families in financial need to access parks, recreation and culture programs and services. With it, people can access showers through the pool decreasing the volume of people at Caledonia Park.

It was also approved that the city work with community partners over the long term to ensure that shower services are provided as a part of their services within new and existing shelters, daytime drop-in centres and other community-supported services. This would allow for a decreased need to use the showers at Caledonia Park for the free shower program.

Alternative solutions to the current shower program at Caledonia Park were discussed during the meeting. The alternatives could look like transitioning the shower program service to other community partners or expanding the shower program in the city by utilising other city facilities. Mobile shower systems were also discussed.

After the presentation, Councilor Ian Thorpe shared his concerns about the park being used for the shower program and not what it was originally made for.

“And by increasing shower hours we are taking away potentially if not for a fact, hours other users use at that facility. So that does concern me and I am pleased to see point four in your recommendation about working with others. community partners to look for other options. So that as it said in the report in front of me, we can allow the city to return Caledonia Park building to its originally intended use to me that is important, and I don't think we can lose sight of that.” 

Richard Harding, General Manager of Parks, Recreation & Culture for the city, explained that eventually, a new home for the shower program would need to be found, especially as recreational use of the park increases. 

“Ever since we've used this as a temporary site a number of years ago with just that is there's no other doesn't seem to be a solution and another location, this time, but we do hope that we move forward that there's a more appropriate location for this program because I don't believe it is sustainable at this location. Because it wasn't built for this type of use.”

Under the last recommendation, staff will return to the council in fall 2024 to provide an update on the shower program and any alternative solutions to replace the program at Caledonia Park

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.