A new staff report from the City of Courtenay says more shelter space is needed for people experiencing homelessness during the winter in the Comox Valley.
The report says new supportive housing and emergency shelter beds at the provincially funded Braidwood Centre, scheduled to open in Courtenay next fall, won’t be enough to cover the region’s growing needs.
At least 70 people will be left unsheltered each winter, the report found.
City staff noted the Braidwood Centre will provide 73 emergency shelter beds, plus another 30 during extreme weather, but that two other shelters are set to close when it opens.
The Connect Centre in downtown Courtenay, which provides 33 shelter beds, and a temporary winter shelter on Cumberland Road, which offers 18 shelter beds, are both scheduled to shut down.
The Braidwood Centre is slated to open 70 supportive housing units by winter 2027, but city staff said neither those units nor the shelter units will be enough.
The 2025 Point in Time homeless count estimated there were a minimum of 218 people experiencing homelessness in the Comox Valley, 137 of them with no access to shelter at all.