Brandon's Samaritan House plans to launch street outreach as need for year-round shelter grows

The people who run Brandon's food bank and winter shelter hope to launch a street outreach program next year that could help them learn more about their clients and connect them to resources.

Samaritan House Ministries, which runs Manitoba's largest food bank outside of Winnipeg, asked the City of Brandon this week for $5,500 for the pilot project.

"It's literally having qualified people, paid people, boots on the ground, make intentional communication [and] relationships with folks and see what their needs are," said John Jackson, the organization's executive director. 

Jackson said the program would expand on services provided by the organization's shelter, which only operates in winter, and another step toward opening a year-round homeless shelter in the city of about 50,000 people. 

"I think everyone is extremely surprised that Brandon does not have a year-round shelter," Jackson said.

"We're trying to work toward that in a very measured, step-by-step process."

Use of the winter shelter has steadily increased in the last few years, Jackson said. Last year's demand on the shelter beds was unprecedented, with 160 people staying a combined total of 1,700 nights. In 2017, 150 people stayed around 600 nights.

Use this year already points to another busy season. 

"We've already seen about 60 individuals come though, and already about 200 stays," Jackson said. "I anticipate it's going to be a very busy season."    

$90,000 renovation

The shelter, which opened for the season on Nov. 1, just underwent a $90,000 renovation and expansion ahead of this season's opening. It can now safely hold 25 beds, compared to the 15 that were crammed into two small rooms in previous years. 

"What we did was open up a hole in a wall and expand it into a third, larger room," Jackson said.

Work on a small kitchenette in the shelter area still needs to be finished, he said.

"We are the only emergency shelter in this area of the province," he said. 

Jackson said while the outreach project will focus on Brandon's downtown, where the majority of the city's vulnerable population tends to congregate, he anticipates staff will branch out further. 

"It's not just downtown now," he said. "There's folks who are hanging out around the Keystone Centre, there's folks who are hanging out in the west end of Brandon."  

Jackson hopes the pilot project can gather hard data on the vulnerable and transient populations.

Some data is already collected during the winter months when the shelter is open, but there is currently no year-round picture of the needs.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," Jackson said.

"If we can invest dollars on the side of preventing things … then there's a financial outcome for that." 

Jackson hopes staff can start in summer. Brandon city council plans to discuss the funding request during the city's 2020 budget deliberations.