Temporary emergency men’s shelter closes in Kitchener

The temporary emergency men's shelter at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Kitchener closed Wednesday.

The shelter at 825 King Street West was open to men aged 25 and over, and supported up to 60 men experiencing homelessness during the winter months. 

It's being closed in order to make way for 40 affordable housing units, which are expected to be move-in ready in two years.

The closure comes later than expected according to YWKW CEO Elizabeth Clarke.

“The original closure date in our funding contract with the Region and in our lease with the landlord was April 30th,” said Clarke in an email. “We extended both to the end of June when the owner, Indwell, advised that their construction would be delayed. But we knew it wouldn't be past the end of June. “

While the affordable housing is good news, Waterloo Region's emergency shelter system is now 60 beds smaller.

Other members of the local emergency shelter system have been doing their best to help.

“We are in the business of providing shelter and will do whatever we can to work on a viable solution,” said Anne Tinker, Interim Executive Director at Cambridge Shelter Corporation, which operates The Bridges shelter.  “Our housing team has been visiting St. Mark's for the past several weeks and have set up permanent housing plans for some of those individuals.” 

For those who have not been set up with permanent housing, getting access to an emergency shelter is near impossible with the added complication of ongoing outbreaks in all emergency shelters. As of Wednesday, only seven cases are active in that widespread outbreak. Public health officials, however, haven't given the green light for those shelters under outbreak to house any new clients. 

As it turns out, some of them may not want to use the shelter system in the first place, according to Elizabeth Clarke.

“The men that we tend to serve at the winter shelter are usually men who aren't willing to use the formal shelter system,” explained Clarke. “In the end, we really only did have two of the 32 men who had been staying with us who were willing to move on to the shelters. The others all said 'no thank you,' they made their own plans.”

Clarke did admit the ongoing shelter outbreaks and the inability to intake new clients is a big concern. A meeting is set for today with public health to figure out the best way forward.

The emergency shelter system has a good amount of capacity for whenever it is able to take on new clients, according to Clarke. They haven't come close to reaching capacity so far this year. Much of that is thanks to the Bridges' work in finding housing for the men they serve.

When it comes to Winter 2021, Clarke expects another location to become a temporary emergency men's shelter, though no location has been floated just yet.

“Every year, we say we won't need one next year, but every year we do, and every year we open it again,” said Clarke, “We're very aware that that may be an option, and if that's the case then another space will be found, but we're hoping that isn't the case.”

Different locations have been used over the years, but local shelters are always looking for space. Space for affordable housing is also highly sought after, and the biggest barrier for those developers is NIMBYism.

“It's a much more daunting task when you have to fight with the neighbours and the neighbourhood,” said Clarke. 

The region has a plan to build 500 additional affordable housing units each year. The best way to help make that happen is to offer a welcoming, accepting community for those units to be built.