Cambridge Shelter continues housing refugees dropped off at its door with no warning

The Cambridge Shelter Corp., also known locally as The Bridges, have helped house 20 to 25 refugees just in the last year, most of which just showed up at the doorstep with no announcement prior.

The executive director, Wayne Paddick, told CityNews Kitchener about 40 refugees have come through its doors in the last year. He said they don’t typically get a lot of refugees or refugee claimants.

“It was about a year ago that all of a sudden I went out the one day into the drop-in and I could see the demographic had just changed,” he said.

Paddick thinks when the shelters in Toronto started to overflow, the city may have cabbed people out into other municipalities across the province.

“We did have a cab for a gentlemen show up one day from Toronto. So, the region made a decision at that point to start accepting refugees and then shifting direction to allow refugees and refugee claimants into the shelter system across the region,” said Paddick.

The Bridges is set up to support and house men experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region that are already from the area.

That was in the summer of 2023, when the region asked the federal government for a $210 million boost to the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) but about half of that went to the City of Toronto.

Paddick said the region hasn’t received a response yet or support from any upper levels of government when they asked for information and funding for the refugees coming in.

“It was a little frustrating that all of a sudden, we’ve got an influx of newcomers, that there was language barriers, they didn’t have any money whatsoever when they first came some of them. There’s a lot of challenges.”

Paddick said none of the upper levels of government are warning them before a refugee shows up at the door but would love a heads up.

“We need money because now our resources are being used up by folks outside of our region.”

He added staff have shifted, becoming more resilient, taking on new challenges and learning new systems to not just get refugees housed but also help them find work.

Paddick added that the region has provided them funding that has allowed them to house more refugees.

The Bridges does have the capacity, according to Paddick, to take in more refugees if needed. The shelter’s model allows for 50 men experiencing homelessness to stay there, but they will put mats on the floors allowing it to take in more people.

“If we’re talking based on what the model was, yes, we’re overcapacity. However, we have space for between 80 to 85 guys a night,” added Paddick. “We really haven’t had to turn anyone away because of a lack of space.”

He would like to see the province or federal government do more to organize refugees or refugee claimants, so they don’t get scattered throughout the region and the province, ending up in shelters like The Bridges.

“They’re leaving a potentially war-torn country, I think when they come here the fact that we’ve let them in says we’re going to support you, we’re going to help you and I don’t think we’re doing that,” said Paddick.

The Cambridge Shelter Corporation will continue helping house refugees that show up at their door but want upper levels of government to do more.