Hamilton’s expanded cold weather response strategy is likely to get a test this weekend with a cold snap headed toward the city.
As a Texas low nears, potentially bringing heavy snow, strong winds and lows of minus 7 C on both Saturday and Sunday night, a pair of city shelters say they will be working together to find spaces for those in need.
“Quite frankly, it isn’t always possible,” Good Shepherd COO Katharine Kalinowski revealed. “As far as we are safely able to, we will expand our capacity, even if it means that folks have a chair and a warm cup of coffee for a few hours or overnight.”
Shawn MacKeigan, an associate executive director with Mission Services, expects they will be in the same situation and anticipates needs will be greater than last year. He says daytime drop-in spaces are not likely to be an issue, like those at Willows Place, which have not reached capacity so far this winter.
Late-day services may see an uptick and outpace resources available, but MacKeigan won’t be entirely sure until the weather events happen.
“I don’t know that I would say that because, of course, you can’t anticipate what the need is going to look like until we see it,” he explained.
The city’s Winter Response Strategy is now an ongoing program between December and March and no longer tied to public health cold weather alerts like it was in 2022.
Following a December winter storm last year, advocates for the unhoused suggested gaps were exposed for those facing homelessness when cold weather alert conditions were no longer met systematically leaving few drop-ins available for those amid white-out conditions.
Offerings now available, regardless of temperatures, include a warming bus, select recreation centres with extended hours, more hours at Hamilton Public Library’s central location, 24-hour washrooms in two parks as well as new overnight warming spaces and shelter beds.
After rolling out the plan, several city agencies like the HUB, HAMSMaRT, Shelter Health Network and SOPEN in a November joint statement suggested there are still “shortfalls,” particularly in terms of “planning and troubleshooting potential problems prior to cold weather.”
Hamilton’s Homelessness and Housing Support Division says it increased shelter capacity for men in December moving from 198 beds in November to 243. The city’s other offerings remain the same with around 66 beds for women, 21 for youth, 20 rooms for families and 52 emergency hotel overflow spaces.
Occupancy across all the categories is running close to capacity, according to housing.
As of Tuesday, the city estimates 27 per cent of emergency shelter spaces were occupied by refugees or asylum seekers, an increase from July 2023 when it was approximately 20 per cent.
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