An organization known for helping homeless and at-risk women is facing a serious challenge.
My Sisters’ Place discovered more than a week ago that it had suffered a sewage backup at its Dundas Street location. The heritage home provides a safe space for vulnerable women and gives them access to showers and laundry as well as hot meals and other programming.
Because of the severity of the sewage backup, officials say they haven’t been able to offer bathroom and laundry services to clients. It also hasn’t been possible for staff to do their usual food preparation so they’ve resorted to providing sandwiches instead.
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Director of My Sisters’ Place Susan Macphail says they considered moving to a temporary location while repairs are done on site, but decided not to because their clients are familiar with the organization’s current home.
“We consider ourselves to be an essential service with 100 to 140 women per day, many of whom are completely homeless and very marginalized and have nowhere else to go,” Macphail told AM980. “We really felt that we had to do everything within our power to keep our doors open and to maintain as much as we could.”
To help the group accomplish that goal the London Police Service, which is right across the street, has offered its own bathroom facilities for My Sisters’ Place’s staff and clients.
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Not only has the sewage backup caused a logistical nightmare, it’s also resulted in a financial crunch.
Macphail says contractors estimate it could cost between $30,000 and $40,000 to make the necessary repairs and that kind of cash simply isn’t in the organization’s budget.
“We are hoping that we’ll be able to look to supporters (and) donors. We definitely are going to need some help covering that — otherwise it will impact our operations,” she said.
Macphail says their parent organization, the Canadian Mental Health Association Middlesex, and a number of other community groups are providing all the support they can. A community initiative to raise funds for the project may also be in development.
“London is an incredibly supportive, caring, kind and generous community and really likes to help out their own,” said Macphail.
Anyone interested in making a donation to help offset the cost of the repairs is encouraged to contact My Sisters’ Place at 1-877-859-0352 or 519-679-9570. Contributions can also be made through the Canadian Mental Health Association Middlesex.