Following Duncan council rejecting a $3,000 dollar grant-in-aid request, homeless advocates are still hopeful the ideal facility can work.
Keith Simmonds is the Minister at Duncan United Church and he’s a member of the Cowichan Coalition to Address Homelessness and Affordable Housing and he says the old Charles Hoey School (756 Castle Place), near McAdam Park remains the targeted site.
That facility meets all the criteria and zoning requirements and Simmonds remains hopeful that the necessary funding will come through.
He adds that despite Duncan council rejecting a funding request, the balance of the $9,000 dollars can still be raised through other means.
North Cowichan granted the Cowichan Women Against Violence Society $3,000 dollars and the group is going to ask the C.V.R.D. board for another three grand.
Simmonds says a women’s shelter is a necessity because 90 percent of the people who stay at Warmland House are men, and women who have been the victims of physical abuse simply won’t go there.