Temporary closure of Kenora, Ont., homeless shelter nears

As the temporary closure of Kenora's only homeless shelter nears, service providers in the city are scrambling to find accommodations for the facility's patrons.

Nan Normand of the Northwest Community Legal Clinicand Making Kenora Home said compounding the problem is a critical housing shortage in the northwestern Ontario city, located about 500 kilometres west of Thunder Bay.

"There are no accommodations," she said. "There are no empty units in Kenora. That's the problem."

The Kenora shelter is part of the community's Service Hub.

'Sleeping in the woods'

The hub itself closed for 45 days on Monday. However, the Kenora District Services Board which funds the hub elected to keep the shelter portion open nights until Sunday, in hopes they can find places to stay for the people who use it.

"They will be looking at sleeping in bushes," Normand said. "That's reality. Everyone who can possibly slip in a bed or a mattress is doing so, but it's still looking like approximately 30 people will be sleeping in the woods."

The board has said the temporary closure is taking place over concerns for the safety of staff and patrons at the service hub, and to give community agencies time to work together to try and address the community's issues.

Those issues, Normand said, include increasing drug use.

• Pending Kenora shelter closure prompts worry for vulnerable patrons

"The meth crisis has been recognized as an international crisis, not just a local crisis," she said. "We hit, maybe, six months behind Thunder Bay and Winnipeg. We began seeing it approximately two years ago."

"The OPP said, 'look, it's coming,'" she said. "But we didn't really prepare for it, and creates another dimension that makes the delivery of services more difficult."

Agencies working together

The Ne-Chee Friendship Centre, which operates the Service Hub, has begun a street outreach program, which will offer support to people in need during the hub's temporary closure.

Other agencies have also stepped in, offering meals and other services during the hub's shutdown period.

"The one thing that is going right in the midst of all this is how all of the agencies are coming together," Normand said.

She said a committee is working on reopening the Service Hub, while a second group is coordinating services during the closure, ensuring things like water, food, toilets, and hopefully beds, are available, she said.