The day shelter that was set to open up this month is being pushed back due to construction issues.

 Women who are suffering in an abusive relationship often need a place to stay as they plan to leave, but Airdrie has no shelter to currently offer them and it seems won't for a while longer.

Crystal Boys, creator of Airdrie P.O.W.E.R, said that unforeseen construction issues have put a stop to the opening.

"We applied for a permit and we got back some pretty devastating news that the house pretty much has to be gutted and started over to bring it up to commercial code. We had anticipated quite a few things that we were going to have to do and (we) had the money for that, but we just were not anticipating having to gut the whole house and start over again. It was quite upsetting news for us."

Boys said the inspection had a great number of things needed to be improved or completely redone before they would be granted a commercial permit.

"We were just waiting to get out a permit and that's when they let us know and said 'hey, all of these steps have to be taken before we can move ahead'. The steps were quite strenuous. We have to do things like remove all of the drywall and put new drywall in, our stairs aren't wide enough so we have to do some structural changes there, on the inside of the house the doors and the hallways aren't wide enough. A bunch of things that just made it from doing what we needed to do to bring it up to commercial code. It went really sideways and we do now have to start from scratch, which was quite upsetting for us. We were hoping to open this month and to start helping some families in Airdrie here and we just have to wait a little bit longer now."

With the new construction needed, Boys said they found themselves short on funds.

"We're about a minimum $60,000 short on the construction cost right now as it stands. We have to really scrounge together some money, some funding and donations of material and stuff before we can get the shelter open. It really depends on how fast we can open our doors."

Boys said her team are trying different ways to gather the funds to complete the shelter.

"Our big focus is a GoFundMe campaign. We're hoping that that will reach a lot more people than what we could do with a local fundraiser. We're planning a bottle drive on May 4th, so save your bottles, we'll collect them for you. Pretty much just anything and everything that we can do to raise the money, we are doing it."

"We just started the GoFundMe page yesterday and we're already at $625 I think. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is a lot for the first day. The community has just rallied behind in offering what they can. Volunteer hours, if they can help, what can they do to help raise the money. Once again, the community of Airdrie has stepped up and show their support and really want to make this happen just as much as we do."

Boys and her crew are staying optimistic despite the setbacks.

"It was a hard hit, I'll be honest. We were quite devastated when we found out last week, but you know what, we said 'hey, this will not stop us. This is one of many hurdles we have had to jump and we're just going to have to jump a little higher and hit the ground higher'. I have an amazing team behind me that supports this vision and what we want to do. It was really good to see. We all had our emotional feelings when we discussed it, some of us got upset and shed a few tears, but we wiped off the tears and said 'this is what we've got to do, so let's do it'."

To donate to the GoFundMe, visit here.

 

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