1 September 2016
Samaritan House is crowded. On top of the 14 bunk beds that are regularly filled, add up to 5 mats on the floor and the supported units in Martha’s Place upstairs, plus staff, and you have 24 or 25 women rubbing shoulders in this old house.
In 2010 management began making applications for funding to redevelop the shelter. In 2011 funding was secured from Service Canada to begin pre-development work. The society hired Jack Anderson of Anderson Greenplan Ltd to guide the pre-development process and on May 10th, 2012 the steering committee met to begin work.
A time of community consultation, research, and design work followed and in late 2015 the City of Nanaimo issued a development permit to begin the next phase of the project.