Hamilton expected to address staffing, funding questions following ‘gap’ in warming services

The director of Hamilton’s housing services says the city will “definitely” be looking at the execution of its cold alerts from public health following a winter storm that exposed gaps in service for those facing homelessness.

Michelle Baird characterized the closure of some city-operated facilities Christmas Eve amid high wind chill conditions as “unfortunate.”

“(We’re) looking at the cold alerts overall to understand when one does get called, what does it mean and when does services come into play versus what is operating on a regular basis,” Baird told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.

The city has since implemented an “interim solution” after warming centres systematically closed when the cold weather alert was cancelled on Dec. 24, 2022, leaving just a couple of drop-ins available for those who needed help.

Hamilton’s medical officer of health issued the notification on Dec. 23 with the expectation that wind chill values would hit around -27 on Friday and linger through the overnight Saturday.

Additionally, the city said storm conditions affected service through whiteout conditions that hindered staffers trying to get to work at the facilities.

In a last-minute effort to close the gap last week, the city initiated supports allowing extended hours at a pair of volunteer-led locations – The Hub on Vine Street and Central Memorial Recreation on West Street.

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The Hub’s executive director suggested some they took in on Dec. 24 likely would have suffered frostbite had they stayed outside much longer and that many abandoned belongings.

Jennifer Bonner says despite city staff pivoting to provide warming areas over the holidays, the occurrence raised questions on the viability of the current system going forward.

“We do need to head back to the table and talk about the real nuances of this and what that actually means,” Bonner said.

“Because I don’t know if anyone’s been outside, but -15 C and -2 C kind of feel the same if you’ve been out there for numbers of weeks.”

Going forward the Vine Street operation will stay open 10 p.m. until 10 a.m. every day until March 31 regardless of public health’s cold weather status, allowing indoor space for those who maybe can’t or won’t access shelters for one reason or another.

The venue has been known as the evening drop-in centre for the city when availability at other locations shrinks, typically between 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., during the winter.

Baird says the triggers for cold weather alerts, lack of staffing and general funding will be pieces the city will circle back to in a re-assessment of its homelessness services sector.

The funding question is one of the biggest that lingers since the Ford government declined a request in early December for more money to address Hamilton’s homelessness programs.

For the remainder of this winter, the city kicked in $125,000 in December to address current gaps with overnight drop-in services for the houseless population.

In a letter to the city in December, Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark said the $52 million it gave in 2022 to Hamilton’s programs was already four per cent more than the previous year and that it could not address additional funding for the coming year at this time.

“So at this point, we’re still looking at what that looks like and understanding what’s being offered through the community versus the city,” Baird said.