The conference room in the former Ramada Hotel, located at 140 Trans-Canada Hwy., could be used as a temporary winter shelter for unhoused people this winter.
The City of Duncan, in collaboration with the Municipality of North Cowichan, Cowichan Valley Regional District and Emergency Management Cowichan, is applying for a temporary-used permit from Duncan’s city council to establish a temporary winter shelter in the hotel’s conference room for a five-month period, from Nov. 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.
Temporary winter shelters are seasonal shelters that operate during the colder months to provide safe, warm indoor spaces for individuals experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.
Last winter, an emergency warming centre was operated in the rear parking lot of the Ramada hotel site, but it was only open and operational on 103 nights during the season’s most harsh winter-weather conditions.
Ryan Wainwright, senior manager at Emergency Management Cowichan, explained that one of the big differences between an emergency warming centre and a temporary winter shelter is that a temporary winter shelter receives more funding to operate from BC Housing so that it would be open daily for the months of its permitted use, rather than just during periods of bad weather.
He said that’s a critical difference from an emergency warming centre.
“Emergency warming centres are tied to the weather, so there’s no predictability to their operations,” Wainwright said.
“Clients at emergency warming centres have to be out in the morning and many days could go by before they are given the opportunity to use the centre again, and that’s not a very humanitarian to deal with unhoused people.”
Attempts by local emergency organizations and local governments over the years to find a suitable location to take care of the region’s unhoused population had proven unsuccessful.
The CVRD board decided in December, 2023, to designate the Cowichan Community Centre’s Heritage Hall as a place to support the unhoused population in the Cowichan region during extreme weather conditions that winter, but after a number of user groups of the CCC complained, the search began again for another spot for the centre.
Last winter, an emergency warming centre was operated in the rear parking lot of the Ramada hotel, and that proved to be a better location due to the fact that it was not near schools, daycares and other public sites.
Wainwright said that, through the BC Housing program, a better funded temporary winter shelter would also provide a higher level of support to unhoused residents, including meals, and is easier to reliably staff as operating hours are not weather-dependent.
He said the plans for the temporary winter shelter in the Ramada’s conference room, if approved, would be to have 24 beds with a capacity for more, rather than the 20 beds that were in place last year, to deal with the increasing number of unhoused people in the region.
“However, the plan requires a temporary-use permit from the City of Duncan before BC Housing will consider the proposal,” he said.
“We think this is a good location, and our clients will be inside instead of having to stay in the parking lot. We appreciate the City of Duncan stepping up and taking responsibility for this.”
The City of Duncan will host a drop-in public information meeting regarding the proposal for the temporary winter shelter on Sept. 4, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at City Hall, located at 200 Craig St.
The purpose of the meeting is to provide the public with an opportunity to ask questions about the proposal and provide informal feedback on the application for TUP from the city.
The public is also invited to attend the council meeting on Sept. 8, at 6 p.m. for the opportunity to speak on the issue.
