The Kenora Fellowship Centre is urgently seeking donations to keep its emergency shelter open after the city council delayed an amendment to a new zoning bylaw, effectively halting plans to shift responsibility for the shelter to another organization.
The Presbyterian-supported mission originally planned to close its shelter on April 1, with the Ne-Chee Friendship Centre taking on the task of running a shelter in another location in the vicinity.
The Ne-Chee Centre’s current location is about a half-hour walk from the downtown.
“The rezoning amendment will not allow a shelter in any of these areas including where Ne-Chee is presently located as well as our site,” explained Yvonne Bearbull, executive director of the Kenora Fellowship Centre. The new zoning bylaw only permits shelters in areas that are zoned residential.
The Fellowship Centre currently runs the only emergency shelter in Kenora, Ont.
At press time, city planners had scheduled an open house to discuss the situation and the proposed bylaw amendment, which would allow a shelter in the downtown area, and were holding focus groups with residents and business owners.
At the focus group she attended, Bearbull suggested city staff hold a focus group with the patrons of the centre “as they are the most affected stakeholders.”
“Prior to this it had never occurred to them to consult this group,” she said.
In the meantime, the board of the Fellowship Centre agreed to keep the doors of its emergency shelter open for at least a while longer “due to the apparent gap in service to those facing homelessness.”
“We will continue our present efforts and have scaled back on various supports,” the board of directors said in a statement. “We are facing monthly deficits. Financial support in the amount of an additional $6,000 per month would be a big help in the continuation of the emergency shelter program.”
The emergency shelter also faced closure in 2015 due to inadequate funding, but managed to continue operating until a transition plan was in place. With that plan now on hold, the mission is again struggling to fund that portion of its operations.
Donations can be made through congregations, online at gofundme.com/kenorafellowship or through Canada Helps, or by sending a cheque to PO Box 447, Kenora ON P9N 3X4.
