The Welcome In Drop-In will remain open over Christmas and new funding from the County of Wellington will allow it to act as an overnight warming centre over the winter months.
The extended winter hours at the Drop-In start on Friday.
The measure is not intended to act as a shelter and there will be no cots for people to sleep in, said its executive director Gail Hoekstra.
“People can come, have a coffee in a place that is warm. It won’t be an expanded shelter service,” said Hoekstra. “It’s more of a warm place for people to go on cold or wet nights.”
Supportive housing is not being built fast enough to cover the need, said Hoekstra.
“We still have our shelters open for people to sleep and be, but we also know there is a group of people who sleep outdoors and we need supportive housing — that is always our goal as a community, to help with the homelessness issue,” she said.
“We are all working toward that goal, but it’s not happening fast enough. We need a place for the people who sleep outdoors to come and be warm while we are solving this other, bigger issue,” said Hoekstra.
A federal initiative called Built for Zero aims to eliminate chronic homelessness by the year 2023. One of the pieces in that initiative is the maintenance of what is called the By Name List, which keeps track of the people in the community experiencing homelessness by name, their story and what is keeping them from being housed.
“We will use these months to have an opportunity to talk to this group of individuals and learn more about the issues around their experience of homelessness,” said Hoekstra. “Getting to know that group and its needs will help us to get our list and to understand those people all the more.”
The By Name List expands on the information gathered during the ‘point in time’ homelessness count that is also done on a regular basis in communities across Canada.
“This is one step further,” said Hoekstra of the By Name List. “This will be an opportunity to get to know people who are rough sleeping even more, find out what is keeping them from using a shelter and find out what they need to get housed.
On Friday the Drop-In will open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., as usual, but will open again at 9 p.m. and remain open until 3 p.m. the next day.
On Saturdays and Sundays the Drop-In will open at 7 p.m. for the overnight shift.
Candace Wrixon is the manager of Housing Programs at the Drop-In. She said the new hours will be an extension of what the centre does in the daytime and people seeking a warm place to go in the hours they are closed can go to Royal City Church.
“When we open up at 7 p.m. on Saturday, we won’t close again until 3 p.m. on the Monday because there are no other dinners or anything open on a Sunday,” said Wrixon. “Over Christmas we will basically be open 24 hours over Christmas because everyone else will be closed.“
She said the extended hours is not intended to be the solution to chronic homelessness in Guelph, but to address the need in the community for supportive housing.
“It’s not happening as fast as we had hoped, so we are trying to fill the gap over the winter for people who would prefer to sleep rough so they can come in and warm up,” said Wrixon.
A new cold weather protocol graph showing which centres are open at what times has been created to reflect the new hours.
The Drop-In has received funding from the County of Wellington for the additional hours required for two staff members to run the centre overnight. Some of the shifts will be covered by existing staff, while others will be picked up by newcomers.The Drop-In Centre will be accepting donations from the community for food items. People or organizations wishing to donate can contact Candace Wrixon at the Drop-In at 519-837-0080.