Limited shelter space available for men in Waterloo Region

Cold weather challenges in Waterloo Region Warming centres are open during the day, but finding an overnight option is a challenge for the unhoused population. Colton Wiens reports.

The deep freeze has created a problem for anyone seeking shelter space in Waterloo Region.

“You walk into St. John’s Kitchen, and you recognize that there’s at least 250 people there [who] don’t have a place to go each night,” said Joe Mancini, director of The Working Centre. “That is what’s shocking in our community, that there isn’t even a warming place where they can go.”

The region has multiple warning centres open during the day, but none remain open through the night.

It presents a serious safety problem, especially when the wind chill makes it feel like -22 Celsius, like it was on Thursday.

“People have to find a means of staying warm,” Mancini said. “Whether it’s in someone’s backyard, like in their shed, or ganging up into apartments or, as you see in the encampments, people have different means of running fires inside their tents in order to stay warm.”

The Working Centre manages the King Street shelter located in the former Schwaben Club. It has 100 beds available, but priority is given to women, until the region’s two new women’s shelters fully open.

“Men have been displaced from the King Street shelter,” Mancini said. “Probably 30 or 40 men that we would have there right now, [but] there’s no other choice. Those individuals are mostly in the encampments or somewhere else.”

The region plans on closing the King Street shelter in March. The new shelters, for women and femme-identifying people, are meant to replace it.

Mancini said its closure will mean less available spaces for unhoused men.

“It’s not an addition, it’s just replacing what was lost,” he stated. “To lose another shelter will only make the situation twice as bad next year.”

Mancini is hoping for more funding from all levels of government so more shelters can be built.

The region, meanwhile, said it’s working on a plan for overnight warming spaces.