GUELPH – A warming centre for Guelph’s homeless community opened November 1, providing a warm bed, food and a sense of community for up to 15 people who are otherwise living outdoors.
The Centre, operating out of The Drop In’s current location at 23 Gordon Street in Guelph, will be open from 8pm to 8am, seven days a week, on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Typically the Drop In has acted as a community centre for anyone who wanted to come in and out, but that isn’t the case with the warming centre this year,” says Gail Hoekstra, Executive Director of the Drop In Centre.
“We are working to follow all public health guidelines to reduce the spread of Covid-19, and that means we can only admit up to 15 people for the night.”
The warming centre is one of several projects the Drop In is leading to support Guelph’s homeless and housing insecure community over the colder months. Drop In staff are also delivering the Loyola House Supportive Temporary Accommodation Pilot (LHSTAP).
“LHSTAP is allowing us to provide 24 hour a day supports and work in partnership with health agencies to build in primary care supports. This is helping to create a model of intensive support to meet the need and we will hopefully continue to build on this model to be applied to any permanent supportive housing projects that are being proposed across Guelph-Wellington,” says Hoekstra.
“Our community partners are able to support people in areas such as mental health, physical health and addiction support, and that makes a world of difference in putting them in a more stable position.”
In addition to the 40 temporary accommodations available through LHSTAP, Loyola House is also home to the Supportive Recovery Room (SRR), which provides emergency, supportive accommodations for up to five people experiencing acute mental health or addiction crisis.
Co-locating the SRR and LHSTAP allows for local agencies to pool resources.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted housing insecurity and homelessness as a key iss =ue that needs to be addressed in our community, and the Drop In is proud of the pivoting we have been able to do to respond quickly,” says Hoekstra.
“Our community partners have really come together to meet the needs of vulnerable people in our community, and we will continue to work on emergency and longer-term solutions to address homelessness and housing instability.”
The Warming Centre will be open 7 days a week beginning November 1, at 23 Gordon Street in Guelph.
