Surrey shelter faces funding cliff for crucial meal service

A Surrey shelter says it will be forced to cut its meal service program as funding runs out.

Surrey Coun. Linda Annis issued a statement Thursday, saying it would be s a mistake to close the Surrey Welcome Hub, which operates out of the Surrey Urban Mission Society (SUMS), to provide meals, washrooms, laundry and access to health services for the unhoused.

In 2023, the city received one-time provincial funding for the hub, but, Annis says, that’s come to an end.

While funded, she says the SUMS did a “terrific job” and it should continue and expand.

“Rather than closing, I believe we need five Welcome Hubs across our city, that’s the actual need and daily reality,” said Annis.

SUMS CEO Jack O’Halloran says the society went through a similar ordeal when a hygiene grant expired last year. The meal service program is set to expire at the end of this month.

“All those services that those people who are presently living hard, unhoused, effectively will dry up,” O’Halloran told 1130 NewsRadio.

He says the loss will amount to “cutting off” people who are already living in “the lowest of the low” conditions.

O’Halloran says local businesses and Surrey Memorial Hospital will feel the difference.

“We all totally understand that once that meal program goes away, there are no services for people who are on the street. So when they go to the washroom, they’re going to go to the washroom in public places. And that doesn’t mean public washrooms. That means doorways, alleys, various things like that. When you’re not getting fed, your health is going to deteriorate. And you’re not getting clean, your health is going to deteriorate,” he explained.

SUMS will now only have enough to serve meals to the residents who occupy its 16 shelter beds.

O’Halloran says the Union of British Columbia Municipalities granted the original funding to the City of Surrey in 2022.

Annis says she’s encouraging the provincial government and the Fraser Health Authority to “grow the hub program so that it can continue to provide its range of practical services and meet those same needs in other parts of our city.”

—With files from Michelle Meiklejohn