Drayton Valley has become the second community in Alberta to have Shelter Pods.
The new emergency shelter initiative began in Edson in 2021, and many communities across Alberta began to take notice. In Edson’s set-up, if someone is in need of a place to stay, they head down to the Shelter Pods. A volunteer will buzz them in, and the person has a safe warm place to spend the night. Inside, they find very basic accommodations. In Edson’s case, it is simply a mat on the floor.
The Town of Drayton Valley started taking a look at what Edson was doing, and started to think it could be an upgrade to the Community Mat program.
The Community Mat program is currently located in the basement of the Calvary Baptist Church. It provides emergency shelter during the winter. Lola Strand, Community Services Manager for the Town, says the program does have its limitations, however. For example, it is mainly funded with a provincial grant.
“We started looking for alternate solutions that would not be reliant on provincial government funding, funding that could be more sustainable, and a way to offer shelter for folks 365 days out of the year,” she explains.
That is when the Town started looking at Shelter Pods. Edson’s Shelter Pods are in a building, while Drayton Valley’s Shelter Pods use a renovated oilfield camp shack.
“The shacks are on skids, so if we decide to move them, we have the ability to do that,” said Strand.
To build the Shelter Pods, the Town reached out to Alta-Fab Structures in Nisku. Alta-Fab specializes in refurbishing camp shacks.
The Town was unable to do this without partners though. One of the largest partners is Humans Helping Humans. When Humans Helping Humans discovered the cost of the renovated camp shacks from Alta-Fab, they decided to buy a second one.
Hack Hamdon, president and co-founder of Humans Helping Humans, said the purchase was a no-brainer.
“We had some money donated to us by the TD Bank. We had a couple successful fundraisers, then COVID hit and we could not do anything with the money,” said Hamdon. “So when we heard about this company out of Nisku that was building these Shelter Pods, we thought, ‘Well, the Town is going to buy one. Why don’t we buy one as well?’”
Between the two Shelter Pods, Hamdon estimates there are now 28 beds for people to spend the night. Hamdon describes the accommodations as similar to what is offered through the Community Mat program. Inside the room is a cot, and not much else.
According to Hamdon, Humans Helping Humans will also be providing volunteer labour to keep the Shelter Pods running. As he describes, there is no need for a volunteer to be on site to buzz in a person for the night. It can be done with an app on a smartphone.
While supportive of the Shelter Pods, Hamdon does see them as being a band-aid solution. He says the ultimate goal of Humans Helping Humans remains launching a Housing First initiative in Drayton Valley.
“The Shelter Pods do take a person off the streets on a cold night and give them a warm place to stay, but Housing First actually deals with the entirety of homelessness,” he explained.
While the Shelter Pods were delivered to Drayton Valley on April 4, they are not open for business just yet. The utilities need to be hooked up, and the IT infrastructure installed to allow volunteers to monitor the site remotely.
Both Strand and Hamdon predict the Shelter Pods should be ready to go in May.
In addition to the Town of Drayton Valley, the Drayton Valley and District Family and Community Support Services, and Humans Helping Humans, other partners in the project include the Rural Development Network and Employment and Social Development Canada.
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