Sidney emergency weather shelter moving forward at St. Andrew Anglican Church

Sidney is taking the next steps to establish an Extreme Weather Response Shelter (EWRS) at St. Andrew Anglican Church for this coming winter. 

An EWRS is a Province-funded shelter space that allows unhoused individuals to access a safe space when severe weather conditions may be detrimental to their health if they were to sleep outdoors. 

In September 2025, Sidney’s town council rejected an application to have an EWRS established in Wakefield Manor. 

This decision was made after numerous members of the public spoke out at the meeting, concerned because they believed a temporary shelter such as this would compromise the safety of the residents at Wakefield Manor. 

Since that time, staff have been working with Beacon Community Services (BCS) to find an alternate site where the shelter space could be established when needed. 

As a temporary solution, council approved a pilot warming centre to operate through this past winter in the Nell Horth Room alongside the Sidney/North Saanich Library. 

This endeavour operated without incident over seven of the winter’s colder nights and served 15 individuals who would have otherwise been left out in the cold or had to find a way to a neighbouring community’s EWRS. 

Building off the success of the warming centre, the most recent movement on the issue is that council has advanced a Temporary Use Permit (TUP) application to the neighbourhood notification stage to support an EWRS at St. Andrew Anglican Church, located at 9691 Fourth Street.

This stage in the approval process allows community members to share feedback ahead of council’s consideration of the application, which will take place on Monday, July 13th.

If approved, the EWRS would be operated by Beacon Community Services, as planned initially, and open only during extreme winter weather conditions that pose a risk to unhoused individuals. 

According to the Town, the proposed shelter would be an upgrade to the pilot warming centre’s model by providing sleeping mats and a warm meal in a more structured overnight setting, with no re-entry during overnight hours to support safety. 

The shelter’s operational and staffing costs would be covered by BC Housing, and if approved, the Temporary Use Permit would allow seasonal operation for up to three years.