INUVIK
The newly re-opened Inuvik Emergency Warming Centre is quiet during the afternoon of Dec. 3 until the doors open again for supper in the evening. But it still feels like a home.

Joey Amos, acting director of the Inuvik Emergency Warming Centre, said he tries to think of the people coming to the centre as guests, not as clients. - Sarah Ladik/NNSL photo

Acting manager Joey Amos points to a clock on the wall, saying a guest had just brought it in.

"He came in with it, and said we needed a clock," Amos told the Drum. "Homes have clocks."

Wanting to break the habit of calling the men and women who make use of the centre "clients," Amos - who has spent the last decade away from the community working for the Hope Mission in Edmonton said he refers to them instead as guests or residents.

"This is their home," he said. "But there are rules."

On Dec. 3, the centre had been open for four days.

On the first night, 12 people stayed over. Three more came on the second night. The third night saw a drop to six people, but Amos was confident more would come through the door again.

Residents take part in the chores for the centre, including garbage detail, vacuuming, cooking and shovelling. There are four full-time staff and six casual workers who make breakfast and supper for the residents, as well as a snack. Guests are out by around 11:45 a.m. and let back in at 5 p.m. for supper at 6 p.m. The doors close for the night around 11 p.m. and it's lights out at midnight. For those who stumble in later, Amos has one rule - they can't bring whatever they're on into the centre.

"My mandate is to make sure that anyone who is homeless has a place to sleep," Amos said. "I'm not about to turn anybody away who is homeless."

As for the potentially-controversial practice of taking in residents when they are drunk or high, Amos said he sees the centre as a necessary step to help more people recover from addictions. He said the transition from addict on the street to entirely sober is not one that happens overnight.

"It's ridiculous that people can believe that can ever happen," he said. "This has been all some of these people have known for years. It's a process, you have to help them graduate into society, have these skills."

The new space, next to the library and the food bank downtown in the old Inuvik Works building, also allows for the possibility of day programming, said centre proponent Sheila O'Kane.

"We really want to stress that we appreciate that for two years, the Anglicans shared their space with us," she said.

"But it was a stop-gap, an emergency arrangement."

O'Kane said the donation of a guitar in particular has spurred discussion of a possible regular jam session.

"We're so appreciative that so many people are so generous," she said. "What grieves me greatly are the few people in town responsible for bringing in noxious substances. If people can't make an honest living, I wish they would take their negative contributions - even technically legal ones - away from here. It's a little community, trying to be healthy, and they are not helping and not wanted."

For those who are looking to contribute in a positive way, Amos said the centre is always looking for donations of things like socks, toiletries, pads and tampons, underwear, gloves, mitts and toques.

"There's a whole lot of potential, this is a good starting point," he said.

"Now our people on the streets have a place to call home."

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