Freezing rain, storms make life harder for Sudbury’s homeless, those who help them

The freezing rainstorms last weekend make life hard for Sudbury's homeless – and for the people who ensure they stay safe and warm.

The ice and snow over the weekend and Monday morning made for some challenging conditions for the homeless in Greater Sudbury.

And there’s another Extreme Cold Weather Alert in place overnight Monday, which means there will be additional resources available to help people keep dry and warm.

On nights like this, Cory Gould sleeps in the warming centre at the Samaritan Centre. Gould uses a walker because of mobility and pain issues.

He called the storm last weekend painful.

“It was very difficult to get around. The sidewalks were icy and horrible,” Gould said.

“I walk with a walker (and) it made it very challenging to move through the ice on the sidewalk because the walker would get stuck. The cold really affects my bones because I have MS. So I found it very difficult and very painful because I have spasms and so my bones are still suffering from it.”

He is also living with a fentanyl addiction and said he takes it for the pain. Gould lives on $800 a month in ODSP.

He said he deeply appreciates having a warm place to stay at night at the warming centre, even though people have to rotate in and out every half hour when it’s at capacity.

“If it wasn’t for this place, I would be sleeping on the streets and I probably would have suffered worse,” Gould said.

“So at least I am in there sheltered at least a little bit.”

The homeless encampment in Energy Court was covered in ice Monday morning, which was beginning to melt.

With the inclement weather, the Elgin Street Mission said it had to serve at the takeout window only on Saturday night because of a shortage of volunteers due to the storm.

No one from the Homelessness Network was available to talk Monday because of a staffing shortage, but officials said there have been 50 Extreme Cold Weather Alerts since November, including Monday night.