No money, no food, power about to be cut, nowhere to sleep

I have no food

You do not need ID for a meal. You may need ID for a food bank.

Phone before you go. Hours on this page were checked on 3 September 2026, but they change.

For a food bank closer to you, dial 2-1-1 and say your neighbourhood.

I have no money at all

If you already get income or disability assistance

Ask for a crisis supplement. It is a one-time payment. It can cover food, clothing, rent, a utility bill, a bed, or an emergency repair.

You have to pass three tests. Say all three out loud when you phone:

1. It was unexpected. Something happened you could not plan for.
2. You have no other money. No cash, nothing you can sell or borrow.
3. Going without is dangerous. Your health, or a child's safety, is at risk.

Most people are refused the first time because they never say the third part. Say it plainly.

Rough amounts, set 1 August 2026: food up to $50 per person per month; clothing up to $110 per person per year; shelter up to your family's support-and-shelter rate, normally once a year. Beds, repairs and utilities are decided case by case.

If you were refused assistance, or are still waiting

Ask for hardship assistance instead. Same phone number.

It is for people who do not qualify for regular assistance but have no other way to eat or stay housed. It is paid one month at a time, and you re-apply each month.

It exists if you are waiting on EI, CPP, Old Age Security, WorkSafe or veterans' money; if you are on strike; if you have no ID yet; if you are waiting for a Social Insurance Number; or if you simply need food or shelter right now. Some kinds have to be paid back later. Ask which kind you are being given.

My power or gas is about to be cut

Phone before the cut-off date, not after. Reconnection costs money you do not have.

Step one: a payment plan

Phone BC Hydro and ask to pay the balance in instalments. Anyone can ask. You do not have to be low income.

Ask about the Equal Payment Plan too. It spreads your bill evenly over 12 months so winter does not spike.

Step two: the Customer Crisis Fund

This is a grant. You do not pay it back.

• Up to $800 if your home is heated by electricity, up to $700 if it is not.
• You must be the residential account holder, for your main home.
• Your payments must be at least 21 days overdue, or you are facing disconnection.
• Your balance must be $1,000 or less, and you must have made some attempt to pay.
• A life event in the last 12 months caused the crisis.
• One grant per 12 months.

Apply online at BC Hydro, or on a paper form at any Service BC office. A decision usually takes about 21 days.

Winter is not automatic protection here

BC Hydro pauses disconnections from 1 November to 31 March — but not everywhere the same way.

On Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, you are only protected on days when the forecast average temperature for the next 24 hours is below 0 °C. In the rest of BC the pause is complete.

So in Victoria, winter alone will not keep your power on. Late charges keep adding up either way.

If someone in the home needs powered medical equipment

This matters if you use an oxygen concentrator, a ventilator, a feeding pump, dialysis at home, a powered bed or lift, or you charge a power wheelchair.

We looked for a written BC Hydro programme that protects these accounts — a medical register, a doctor's certificate that stops a disconnection. We could not find one published on BC Hydro's own customer pages, and we found none for FortisBC either. We are telling you that plainly rather than promising something that may not exist.

Here is what to do anyway. It works often enough to be worth every minute:

1. Phone BC Hydro now at 1-800-224-9376, before the disconnection date. Say: "There is life-sustaining medical equipment in this home." Name the equipment.
2. Ask them to put a medical note on the account and ask what protection that gives you. Write down the name of the person you spoke to and the date.
3. Get a letter from your doctor or nurse practitioner saying you depend on the equipment. Ask if you can send it in. A letter in hand changes conversations.
4. Ask about the Customer Crisis Fund and a payment plan in the same call. Clearing the arrears is the surest protection.
5. Make a backup plan today. Charge every battery. Ask your equipment supplier about a backup battery or a manual method. Ask Island Health home care what happens if your power goes out.
6. If the power is cut and someone's life depends on the equipment, call 911. That is what it is for.

If you have oxygen at home, tell your oxygen supplier as well. They plan for outages.

There is no BC Hydro-style crisis grant for gas that we could confirm. If your gas bill is the problem, phone FortisBC at 1-888-224-2710 and ask for a payment arrangement. FortisBC electricity customers, outside Victoria, use 1-866-436-7847.

I have nowhere to sleep

Phone in the afternoon if you can. Beds fill up in the evening.

BC Housing keeps a shelter map at smap.bchousing.org if you have a phone or a library computer.

Cold and storms: Extreme Weather Response

From 15 October to 15 April, extra overnight shelter spaces open in BC when a community declares an extreme weather alert — hard cold, snow or heavy rain.

They open only on alert nights, and only overnight. There is no single number that announces it. Phone 2-1-1 in the day, or ask any shelter or drop-in, to find out whether tonight is an alert night and where the extra spaces are.

If you use a wheelchair

We have to be straight with you about this one.

We went looking for which Victoria shelters are wheelchair accessible. We could not find that written down anywhere. Cool Aid's own shelter page names its three shelters and says nothing about accessible entrances, beds or bathrooms. One of the two directories that used to list Victoria shelters has gone offline, and its web address is now up for sale.

That does not mean no shelter is accessible. It means a wheelchair user cannot find out without phoning, which is exactly the wrong way round.

So phone, and ask these questions directly:

• "Can I get in with a wheelchair — is there a step or a lift?"
• "Is there a bed on the ground floor, or an accessible bed?"
• "Is there a bathroom and a shower I can use in a chair?"
• "Where can I charge a power chair overnight?"
• "Can I keep my chair with me, or does it have to be stored?"

Start with Cool Aid at 250-383-1977 and 211. If nowhere can take you, say so out loud to whoever you reach — it is their job to keep looking, and it is a fact worth recording.

I cannot pay for my prescription

Do not skip doses while you sort this out. Take the pharmacy route first — it is the fastest.

1. Go to your pharmacy and say you cannot pay today. Ask for an emergency supply. BC pharmacists can give you a short supply to keep you going when you cannot reach your prescriber. Ask them to bill it to PharmaCare.
2. If you are on income, disability or hardship assistance, you are on Plan C. Plan C covers eligible drugs at 100%. There is nothing to apply for — the ministry enrols you. Tell the pharmacist you are on assistance and ask them to check Plan C.
3. If you are not on assistance, register for Fair PharmaCare. It is free and you only do it once. Registering can wipe out your deductible if your income is low. Call 1-800-663-7100.
4. For psychiatric medication, ask your doctor, nurse practitioner or psychiatrist about Plan G. It covers many psychiatric drugs at 100% for a year at a time. They fill in the form for you.
5. If you have no doctor, the Cool Aid Community Health Centre serves people who are unhoused or on low incomes. Call Cool Aid at 250-383-1977.

Our full guide covers this in more detail: Dental care and prescriptions.

I am about to lose my home

Two calls, in this order:

1. TAPS, 250-361-3521, 828 View Street. Free advocates for evictions and for assistance problems. Walk in Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 9 am to noon and 1 to 4 pm. Wednesday is phone only.
2. Greater Victoria Rent Bank, 250-383-6166 extension 1. Emergency money to prevent an eviction, for people in Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt, Langford, Sooke, Sidney, Oak Bay, View Royal, Colwood, the Highlands, Metchosin, Central Saanich, North Saanich, Salt Spring and the Southern Gulf Islands. You can apply online at bcrentbank.ca.

If you are on assistance, ask the ministry for a crisis supplement for shelter at the same time — the words are above. Bring the eviction notice.

The Residential Tenancy Branch handles disputes: 1-800-665-8779, Monday to Friday 9 am to 4 pm. Apply for dispute resolution there. Let TAPS help you do it if you can.

I need someone to talk to

You do not have to be in danger to call. "I have run out of money and I do not know what to do" is a good enough reason.

Free help in Victoria

• TAPS (Together Against Poverty Society), 828 View Street — free advocates for income assistance, disability assistance, ministry refusals and evictions. 250-361-3521.
• Cool Aid REES Centre, 465 Swift Street — free phones and computers, and outreach workers who help you apply for benefits. Monday to Friday 9 am to 3:30 pm. 250-595-8619.
• Our Place Society, 919 Pandora Avenue — meals, showers, clothing, storage, outreach and a free legal clinic. 250-388-7112.
• Victoria Disability Resource Centre, 817A Fort Street — 250-595-0044.
• 211 — 2-1-1, weekdays 9 am to 9 pm, for anything not on this page.

Or call the Reachable Line and we will make the calls with you, out loud, at your pace.

Related guides

• Who to call in Victoria — the full list of numbers, sorted by what has gone wrong.
• The PWD designation — disability assistance in BC, and the door to the crisis supplement.
• Dental care and prescriptions — PharmaCare, Plan C and low-cost dental in Victoria.
• Housing and home changes — longer-term housing help once the emergency passes.
• Start here — if you are not sure what you qualify for at all.
• All guides — the full library.

Where this comes from

Every number and time here comes from a page we read on the date shown. Hours change without notice. Phone before you travel. If a number on this page is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

• BC Ministry of Social Development, Crisis Supplement policy and the general supplements rate table: gov.bc.ca — crisis supplement (read 1 September 2026)
• Eligibility for Hardship Assistance: gov.bc.ca — hardship assistance (read 1 September 2026)
• The Mustard Seed, Food Bank (address, hours, ID required): mustardseed.ca (read 3 September 2026)
• Rainbow Kitchen Community Services (address, meal times): rainbowkitchen.ca (read 3 September 2026)
• Shelbourne Community Kitchen (address, office hours): shelbournecommunitykitchen.ca (read 3 September 2026)
• The Salvation Army Victoria ARC (address and phone; meal times are not published): victoriaarc.org (read 3 September 2026)
• Our Place Society (address, phone); meal times from the 211 BC listing: ourplacesociety.com (read 3 September 2026) and bc.211.ca (read 1 September 2026)
• BC Hydro, Customer Crisis Fund (grant amounts, criteria, 21-day decision): bchydro.com — Customer Crisis Fund (read 3 September 2026)
• BC Hydro, Winter disconnection (1 November to 31 March; Vancouver Island protected only below 0 °C) and Customer service rules — neither page mentions medical or life-support equipment: bchydro.com — winter disconnection and bchydro.com — customer service rules (both read 3 September 2026)
• FortisBC contact numbers: fortisbc.com — contact us (read 1 September 2026)
• Victoria Cool Aid Society, Shelters (three shelters, about 125 beds, office number; no addresses and no accessibility information published): coolaid.org — shelters (read 3 September 2026)
• BC Housing, Extreme Weather Response (15 October to 15 April, alert-night only, shelter map): bchousing.org — Extreme Weather Response (read 3 September 2026)
• BC Rent Bank, Contact (Greater Victoria Rent Bank, 250-383-6166 ext. 1, and the communities it covers): bcrentbank.ca — contact (read 3 September 2026)
• Residential Tenancy Branch, 10 Day Notice (five days to pay or dispute) and Contact (1-800-665-8779, weekdays 9 am to 4 pm): gov.bc.ca — 10 day notice and gov.bc.ca — contact the RTB (read 3 September 2026)
• College of Pharmacists of BC, Patient FAQ — confirms BC pharmacists supply medication in an emergency and that an emergency supply does not cancel your existing prescription: bcpharmacists.org — patient FAQ (read 3 September 2026). Ask your pharmacist how many days they can give you; there is no fixed amount published for patients.
• BC PharmaCare, Plan C and Fair PharmaCare: gov.bc.ca — Plan C (read 1 September 2026)
• 211 BC (hours, languages, what it covers): bc.211.ca (read 1 September 2026)
• 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline: 988.ca, and Vancouver Island Crisis Society: vicrisis.ca (both read 3 September 2026)
• Together Against Poverty Society (address, drop-in hours): tapsbc.ca (read 1 September 2026)

Reachable is not a bank, a lawyer, or the government. This guide explains public programs in plain language so you can go and claim them. It is not financial advice about your own situation.