Renovations at Knox United Church delaying planned opening of Kenora shelter

Officials with the social services board in Kenora, Ont., say the extent of renovations needed at the future site of the city's homeless shelter will help push the opening date back by about two months.

The shelter, which will be housed in Knox United Church after Kenora city council gave the go-ahead to necessary zoning changes, was supposed to be open by the end of October, according to Henry Wall, the chief administrative officer for the Kenora District Services Board, but is now slated to open its doors in January 2019.

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Additionally, the board said it needed some more time to properly set up the necessary programs and services that the shelter will offer.

"The intent with the emergency shelter in Kenora is that, compared to what there is now, [currently] it's an evening shelter that is open about 12 hours a day ... but then, come morning time, the shelter is closed," Wall said.

"The intent of the new emergency shelter is that it is going to be open around the clock."

The 6,200 square foot area will house 42 beds and become a place for those who need assistance to sleep, eat, shower and find support services; Wall added that those support services will be geared to helping people who use the shelter get "back on their feet."

"The streets don't have to be it," he said.

With the shelter opening in the middle of winter, Wall said that people on the streets in Kenora will still be able to use the existing temporary facility that's been open for the past two years in the basement of the Northwestern Health Unit.

"There will be no changes to that."

Additional funding has been earmarked to maintain a meal program being offered out of the Kenora Fellowship Centre, Wall added.