Stratford community pushes for new winter emergency response for vulnerable population

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Emergency shelter debate heats up in Stratford

Stratford community pushes for new winter emergency response

With temperatures soon to drop, some Stratford community members are pushing for a change in how people dealing with homelessness can find warmth in the colder months.

The city’s current winter emergency response system allows temporary hotel stays during freezing temperatures.

It’s a system homelessness advocate Martine Lee said needed to change.

“My attempt here is to protest specifically the fact that there is no winter emergency response,” said Lee. ”There’s no overnight winter place that the homeless would go to this winter.”

Lee spent days staying in a tent in front city hall and used signs to have her voice heard.

“In London and Toronto, the larger places like that, they have men’s shelters here,” she explained. “The policy [in Stratford] is you get put into a motel for two weeks and then you get kicked out.”

Lee added this system does not work in Stratford as winter lasts longer than two weeks and homeless people could freeze in the cold.

Lee and other community members proposed the Large Rotary Complex as a potential location for an emergency shelter, although Mayor Martin Ritsma and city council said the location, which is on the edge of the city, is not ideal.

“It’s a big footprint, has lots of capacity but it’s not in the location where amenities are for our most vulnerable people,” said Ritsma.

Ritsma said they are working towards seeing what system is possible for a winter emergency response but added limited funds could put the project in danger.

“We know that if we spend dollars on shelters, those dollars are not put into permanent supportive housing,” Ritsma explained.

Doug Dupe had dealt with homelessness for several years and told CTV News he finds it hard to understand why nothing has been done.

“There’s a lot of abandoned places they could fix up for temporary places for now, for [the] homeless,” said Dupe.

Tatiana Kalinovska, a refugee from Ukraine who said she is also facing eviction, added she believes the system shift shouldn’t be a financial problem for Stratford.

“I believe that this city, compared to other little cities, could definitely afford one of them,” Kalinovska said.

Lee wasn’t going to take no for an answer when it came to possible shelter locations.

“They said the rotary complex is not a good enough place,” she said. “What about anywhere else?”

Lee added she wanted to see something done before the weather turned cold.

Ritsma said they are working with a local church as well as community groups to come up with some answers, including expanding facilities at the connection centre at St. Paul’s Church on Duoro St.