As frontline homelessness agencies await funding decisions by city council, the expiration of stopgap funds on July 31 has forced Ark Aid Street Mission to slash its daytime drop-in hours and access to basic needs for hundreds of Londoners each day. The impact can be seen in growing desperation on the sidewalks and in the parking lots in the Old East Village (OEV) this month. The Ark is now operating its 70 daytime drop-in spaces at 696 Dundas St. for four hours each day, sometimes longer, relying on the availability of private donations and volunteers. On Friday, CTV News spoke with Executive Director Sarah Campbell inside an empty room of tables and chairs. The next room was also empty, except for racks of donated clothing, toilets, showers, and laundry machines awaiting the front door to open. On the other side of the front door, an elderly man sat on his mobility device waiting patiently for the meal service at 1p.m. “We just simply don’t have the funding to keep the doors open as much as we would like to,” admitted Campbell. Fewer drop-in hours at The Ark has an impact on the surrounding business district and residential neighbourhood. “With over 400 people coming through these doors for services on an average weekday and weekend, we know that people are outside and there’s not other places to go to,” Campbell adds. She says there are now fewer hours each day when hospitals, police, and neighobours can refer unhoused Londoners to The Ark, “We also know that the businesses in this area are really suffering with this difficulty. The neighbors have to find ways of supporting [unhoused] people as best they can with nowhere to send people. On April 1, the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative (UHEI) was extended by the federal government, but the timeline to disburse the new funding was uncertain. City council provided $350,000 of bridge funding to extend daytime drop-in space at The Ark and encampment outreach services by 519 Pursuit until July 31. Last week, the federal government notified city hall that it would receive $2.5 million from the new UHEI funding, but a council committee recommends the bulk of that money support the upcoming Winter Response to Homelessness ($2.1 million) and reimburse the municipal reserve account that provided the stopgap funding ($350,000). London Mayor Josh Morgan told the CAPS Committee that an upcoming procurement process will determine how available municipal funds are distributed to frontline agencies and services. “I don’t want to be presumptuous to say, let’s just continue to extend the previous services that were funded under UHEI,” Morgan explained. “But let’s actually have staff do the work of looking at what’s necessary in the system, (and) how we would properly procure that under a transparent and fair process.” Council will consider the committee’s recommendation on August 25. “I’m hoping that they will actually direct Civic Administration to find more funds to support these types of services in a meaningful way until the full procurement framework can be brought forward,” Campbell tells CTV News. In the meantime, Campbell emphasizes the critical importance of donations to frontline agencies including Ark Aid Street Mission, “It’s all donor dollars that are backfilling right now. Donations are the reason that we’re able to provide service.”
