For the funding year, Squamish Helping Hands Society had 5,338 overnight stays in our emergency shelter for 129 unique users.  Twenty-three percent of our shelter users were seniors (over the age of 55).  Our Emergency Weather Response was triggered on October 18, 2024, and has resulted in 112 emergency weather nights with 526 bed nights. Unfortunately, the increasing demand for emergency beds has resulted in 135 people being turned away, a heartbreaking and traumatizing situation for our team and our participants. Anyone who cannot secure a bed is offered survival supplies - sleeping bags, hand and foot warmers, hot beverages, and wound treatment if necessary - but the negative impact on our staff and community is challenging.  Our outreach team is particularly affected by these turn-aways as they know many people on a personal level and work with them to ensure their survival on the coldest of nights.

We continue to operate the Street Reach program on a weekly basis.  Most weeks the program is supported by three peer workers receiving an honoraria payment in addition to an unpaid community volunteer and two staff members for a two-hour community outreach response.  Approximately 25 parcels of snacks and emergencies supplies (hand warmers, rain ponchos, harm reduction supplies) are prepared and packed into backpacks that are distributed to participants in the community at known locations where unhoused participants congregate.  Our 44 apartments in transitional housing had a waitlist of 16 people in the last quarter of 2024.  Eight of our residents left our building for myriad reasons including successful transitions to independent living, hospitalizations, medical transfers, and deaths.  Two of our residents achieved their care plan goals of moving into market-rate housing and transitioning to Hiyam House, a Squamish Nation housing complex with the mandate of bringing their community home.  Both continue to be supported by the services and outreach team at Squamish Helping Hands.