Dozens escaped deep cold at city hall’s last-minute overnight shelter

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Politicians and front-line agencies are applauding London’s eleventh-hour move to open emergency warming spaces during this week’s extreme cold snap, but all agree there has to be a better plan for the future.

City hall hurriedly provided cots, food and water for 62 people at the Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre overnight Tuesday, one city hall official said, with the facility opening just before 9 p.m. as overnight temperatures threatened to feel like -30 C

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“We had a very successful first night,” said Jon-Paul McGonigle, the city’s director of recreation and sport.

That was just hours after eight prominent frontline service agencies penned an open letter to city politicians pleading for such a measure, and one politician’s effort to have staff look into it was rejected.

The facility, similar to what the city would set up in a mass displacement emergency such as a large fire, is expected to be in place until Friday afternoon.

After extreme cold descended on the city Monday, with warnings going as far back as Friday from both the Middlesex-London Health Unit and Environment Canada, that frigid weather lingered through the day Tuesday prompting an extension of warnings until Wednesday afternoon.

McGonigle explained the move is “one of those first times” the city has opened an emergency centre to bring the city’s homeless off the street in an extreme cold situation. He’s not sure how that will be handled going forward.

Tuesday’s open letter from the likes of London Cares, Ark Aid Street Mission, and the Unity Project estimated that more than 320 Londoners were facing the cold on the streets.

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Chris Moss, executive director of London Cares, called the collaborative response on short notice “beautiful,” especially after outreach staff with the organization have struggled helping homeless Londoners facing the cold.

“Within four hours they went from acknowledging our letter to putting that together, which I’ve never seen anyone act that quickly,” she said. “It was pretty miraculous.”

Sarah Campbell, executive director of Ark Aid, also praised the quick-fix shelter. The agency runs 90 drop-in shelter beds, born out of last year’s winter response, which have consistently been full, sometimes meaning dozens of people being turned away from their doors.

While council decided to fund Ark Aid’s shelter beds year-round, the city still has 60 fewer beds this year than it did last year, she added. The city had no dedicated winter response for its homeless population this year, likely part of the reason behind Tuesday’s move, she said.

“It’s not a blaming story. This is, ‘How did we get here?’” Campbell said. “It didn’t happen overnight, and how are we going to get out of it?”

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Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow said he was thrilled to see the centre open after his “disappointment” at a decision Tuesday from his colleagues. He tried bringing an emergency motion forward during Tuesday’s council meeting to have city staff look into opening more warming spaces, which needed two-thirds support from council. It died before it was read aloud in a 7-7 vote.

Mayor Josh Morgan was one of the opposition votes, saying no advance notice was given to have better information ready. He told The Free Press Tuesday evening that after the meeting, he and city staff immediately began planning for the reception centre.

“If we just look at this from the result I was trying to accomplish, I feel very good that I was able to jumpstart a conversation that needed to happen,” Trosow said.

He plans to raise the issue of the city’s winter response to homelessness at a meeting on Monday. “I think the lesson to be learned going forward is that we should always err on the side of planning ahead, even if it seems as if we’re over planning.”

jmoulton@postmedia.com

@JackAtLFPress

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