‘Lemonade from the COVID lemons’: St. Thomas, Ont. opens doors on drop-in homeless shelter

After years of temporary locations, St. Thomas’s out of the cold program is getting a new home and a new name as they get ready to open the doors on a permanent location.

Inn Out of the Cold St. Thomas-Elgin will now be called the INN, and is St. Thomas’s only drop-in emergency shelter, providing 24/7 care year-round.

The 10 Princess Ave. location will have enough beds for 40 people, both men and women, with the ability to welcome more people as needed.

There are separate spaces for men and women as well as smaller spaces for people who might need to isolate or who are having trouble adjusting to shelter life.

“We are looking forward with great anticipation to serving our guests at this new location that will allow those using our services to seek shelter, safety and support in one spot instead of having to bundle up each morning and face the elements, moving around the city to the next site to get help,” says Lori Fitzgerald, the shelter’s executive director.

“When people have the opportunity to get better sleep, stay warm, receive consistent care and more comprehensive support, they can begin the healing process and focus on next steps.”

Another key feature of the space that Fitzgerald noted was that it will be a central location for people to be able to access all the social services they need, from mental health to housing supports, in one place.

She said the services will rotate, dropping into the space each week so people don’t need to leave to go to other locations.

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“I call it the lemonade from the COVID lemons because had it not been for COVID the need would have not been highlighted,” Fitzgerald said.

The city of St. Thomas used a provincial grant to purchase the building in January 2021 to make this project possible. Since then, staff have been working to retrofit the space to meet the operational needs of an emergency shelter.

The INN has operated for nearly 12 years at Central United Church on Wellington Street as a winter drop-in program which was expanded during the pandemic to be year-round.

In 2020, with the onset of COVID-19, they also opened a day site at 423 Talbot St., in partnership with the City of St. Thomas and with the support of the provincial Social Service Relief Fund.