The basement of Sooke’s Community Hall becomes a hub of activity most Thursdays as people filter in and out to grab groceries, talk to a public health nurse and get a haircut.
All of these services are provided by the Sooke Food Bank, a nonprofit that has been serving the community since 1986.
The trouble is, demand has risen sharply but so have costs — at the same time as donations are dropping.
Coun. Al Beddows, who is on the Sooke Food Bank’s board of directors, told Sooke council this week that the food bank is seeing its costs increase by 36 per cent while revenue has gone down by 21 per cent this year.
Often, it’s lower-income people who are most generous with their donations, Beddows said.
“They understand what it’s like to be homeless or going hungry, so they support us in a big way.”
But now, those very donors are becoming users themselves, he said.
The Sooke Food Bank opens up three Thursdays a month in the community hall basement.
Kim Metzger, president of the Sooke Food Bank, said it served 698 households last month, and a third of the bank’s clients are senior citizens or on disability.
Metzger said the increase in food bank users is due to stagnating incomes and runaway housing costs.
“We need more jobs in our town. We need better bus service. We need better help for people that are renting, to make their monthly costs,” she said. “They can’t pay the rent, they can’t pay gas, and the only way they can figure out how to do that is not buy food.”
Metzger moved to Sooke in 2011 and began helping out at the food bank shortly after.
“When I first started, a busy Thursday was 100 hampers and I think I would be stressing if we signed up more than five families in one month.”
Today, the food bank is signing up at least eight families a week and giving out 150 to 175 hampers each week, Metzger said.
A January rental market report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said renters in Sooke are more likely to face higher rents due to higher-than-average turnovers compared with the rest of the capital region. Rental prices from Langford to Sooke are more likely to be above the regional average of $1,839 a month for a two-bedroom rental unit, the report said, adding that rents have increased by 7.9 per cent from the previous year.
Beddows told the Times Colonist that Sooke rents have now gone even higher.
“There’s a lot of people that make $3,000 a month and they just can’t afford an apartment for $2,500,” he said.
Sooke’s median income was $43,200, according to 2020 records from Statistics Canada, the most recent available.
Beddows said many of those who are living on the street or precariously housed in Sooke are people with jobs, adding that he recently met a drugstore clerk who was in that situation.
“Well-dressed, looked good, and he’s living out of his little camper van.”
People living in vehicles don’t necessarily have a place to cook or store food, so they end up accessing food bank services, Beddows said.
Local social agencies such as the Sooke Shelter Society serve up to 75 lunches a day with supplies from the food bank, he said.
Coun. Jeff Bateman, co-chair of the Sooke Homelessness Coalition, said the Sooke Shelter Society now has a client list of about 175. In 2020, the society reported a case load of 73.
The list has a mix of unhoused individuals, the working poor and people at risk of homelessness, he said, adding that about 95 per cent of clients are locally based.
There is also a growing “invisible” unhoused population who couch-surf or live in cars, Bateman said.
Council voted on Monday for Mayor Maja Tait to call on B.C. Housing and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon to hire three employees so that Sooke can increase the number of overnight beds from six to 19 at the Hummingbird Place shelter at 6750 West Coast Rd., and to increase the Sooke shelter budget by 15 per cent.
Bateman said the increased shelter beds could provide safe overnight spaces for people who would otherwise be tenting.
A council report said that overnight tenters sheltering in Ed Macgregor Park and other nearby properties near Hummingbird Place are causing increasing concern after a recent propane heater fire.
There is currently a 45-person waitlist for the 33 supportive housing suites at Hummingbird Place, the report said.
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
