Overnight Shelter maintains stable 24/7 operations, seeking contractor for renovations

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Strathmore Overnight Shelter has been operating 24/7 for over a year and Elizabeth Karp, executive director, said the difference made for the local community has been extremely positive. 

“It offers us more individual follow up, so we have been able to successfully place people more into homes or back with their families into rehabilitation – those types of situations,” she said. “It’s been more helpful because during the day, we can assist with calls and paperwork and things like that, and keep better track of the clients to see how they are doing.”

Throughout this holiday season, the overnight shelter has largely been operating below maximum capacity. Karp explained the facility has been on lockdown due to the spread of flu throughout the community. 

The idea being to protect several of the vulnerable seniors currently relying on the overnight shelter.

Earlier in 2025, the shelter received a $76,000 donation from Lakewood of Strathmore to support the construction of an expansion to the current building. 

“I’m putting up a second story over the sanctuary. We have got the permits in place and the engineer drawings, but the actual construction has not started yet because we are having a terrible time finding a framer and somebody that can do it,” said Karp. “It’s not budget, it’s availability. I can’t find anybody, and nobody has really stepped forward to say they have time to take this on. It’s hard to find a contractor.”

Once a contractor is found, Karp estimates that the renovation of the shelter will take approximately six months to complete. 

To date, the Overnight Shelter has already completed their final liquidation sale of the year. These will resume in January following the holiday season.

Karp described that the liquidation sales hosted by the Overnight Shelter have been going a long way to helping to consistently fundraise, as well as offer affordable options for the local community.

“We sell things dirt cheap. We never know what we are getting in, so for instance we get detergents and things that sell in stores for $15 and we are selling them for two dollars,” he said. “We want to bless the community, but it also does for sure fundraise for our shelter. Obviously, we put what we need into the shelter first before we sell (the rest).”

Regarding donations to the shelter, Karp added they could use an influx of materials such as winter clothing, hand warmers, and cases of water in addition to financial support.