Community organizations are stepping up to help out a homeless shelter in downtown Halifax.
Seven men pulled together to make sure everyone got out of the Souls Harbour Rescue Mission building Wednesday night after a fire broke out.
On Thursday, the organization threw out a call on social media looking for last-minute meals.
“I was leading the emergency management team and not giving much thought about how the response would be.,” CEO Michelle Porter said in an interview “It just caught me right off guard to see so many people step up. We just said ‘we’re putting it out there and going by faith and not giving it a second thought,’ well, sure enough, at 10:30 the lunches started rolling in.”
Community organizations stepped up to donate meals, however, snacks and side dishes are still needed. Photo from Michelle Porter.
Just in time to serve lunch.
Meals are secured through Saturday, but Porter said they’re still looking for side snacks, such as fruit, and bottled water or juice to go with meals.
Recovery program displaced
Luckily, most of the building’s interior was unharmed, Porter said.
“The damage is mostly exterior [but] it’s impacting our emergency fire door, which means we can’t open until all of that structure is replaced.”
No word on how long it will take to repair those damages, but porter said restoration crews and an engineer are on site, so they should know when they can return to the building by Friday afternoon.
“Next week we could potentially be open for meals again, which would be incredible,” as far as our recovery program, they will likely be displaced for several weeks, unfortunately.”
Souls Harbour managed to secure an Airbnb to house all seven men in the recovery program with room left for staff and meetings, but they could only book the place until May 20.
After that, they’ll need to find something else.
A week of shelter costs about $5000, Porter said. But even if the money is donated, she’s worried they won’t find a suitable space to tie them over.
Damage to the inside of the building was contained to the area of the emergency exit. Photo from Michelle Porter.
‘It’s just a beautiful thing’
Staff have been overwhelmed by the response after making a public call for help.
“It’s absolutely humbling to see people lining up at the door — not to get food, but to give it. It’s just a beautiful thing.”
They’re thankful that despite the fire, they haven’t had to close services.
