EDITOR’S NOTE: CollingwoodToday has agreed to not publicly release the location of the emergency shelter to preserve the privacy of clients who live there. If you need to access emergency shelter or the Busby Centre – South Georgian Bay warming centre, please contact 705-828-3795 to be connected.
Just in the nick of time before the weather turned too cold, The Busby Centre – South Georgian Bay was able to come up with a plan to provide temporary emergency shelter services, and a separate warming centre option for those experiencing homelessness in the Collingwood area for this season.
But it took a little bit of creative thinking to get there.
“It’s not the perfect solution, by any means, but we had no other choices but to get creative because space is challenging,” said Sara Peddle, executive director of The Busby Centre. “This interim solution is for this winter because we needed to get people inside. We are seeing increased numbers from all of South Georgian Bay.”
“It would be nice to just be able to open up and do this wherever we want, but that’s just not the case,” she said.
After the COVID-19 emergency shelter model was disbanded this past fall, Busby Centre South Georgian Bay had between 10 and 12 beds available nightly at a local motel. Peddle says the intention was for the shelter to set up in an alternate location long-term as it would have cost less, however a suitable alternative location was not found in time for the 2022/23 winter season.
In order to address the current shelter hitting capacity every night, Peddle says work is currently underway to remove existing beds from the motel rooms and bring in cots so more people can fit per room. That work is expected to be complete and the capacity expanded to 14 shelter beds as of Dec. 5.
“It’s not fun being in shelter. It’s overcapacity,” said Peddle.
Warming centre operations are provided in addition to emergency shelter operations across Simcoe County to address the growing need for homelessness support.
The key difference between a warming centre and an emergency shelter is an emergency shelter typically runs overnight with beds and a formal sign-up process, whereas a warming centre is a drop-in facility that doesn’t require attendees to provide personal information.
“That way, if they don’t want to come in to the (proper) shelter and just want to warm up for a few hours, they don’t have to necessarily sign up for the whole shelter experience,” said Peddle.
Currently, neither the warming centre nor the emergency shelter is permanent in Collingwood.
Two of the rooms at the motel will now serve as a separate-from-the-shelter warming centre, which will be activated when daytime temperatures reach -10C, and will run overnight, every night, regardless of the temperature.
Capacity in the warming centre rooms will be between five and 10 spaces. Separate from the Busby Centre operations, the Collingwood Public Library is also serving as a daytime-only warming centre again this season.
Peddle says this model will be in place until at least March 31. Busby has assigned a task force to work to come up with a solution post-March 31.
Earlier this year following the closing of the COVID-19 emergency shelter motel program, county council approved an additional one-time allocation of $60,000 to the Busby Centre – South Georgian Bay. Collingwood council also approved spending $75,000 on the shelter’s 2022/23 winter season earlier this year.
Peddle said this week that the county has provided $15,000 in further funding to operate the warming rooms this season, and has provided additional funding to help the emergency shelter get through the winter.
However, once the winter is over, Busby will still be looking for help, both through donations and volunteers.
“Volunteerism is down. I think everybody is still a little bit concerned coming out of the pandemic,” said Peddle. “Staffing is also something we are concentrating on. We want to pay our staff appropriately for the skilled and specialized work they’re doing.”
“It’s also about what the future brings, and what we’re going to be doing post-March 31,” she said.
If you’d like to donate items to Busby Centre – South Georgian Bay, the shelter is currently in need of the following items: individually wrapped snacks, juice boxes, socks of all sizes, thermal underwear, toilet paper and disposable face masks.
Donations to Busby Centre – South Georgian Bay go to delivering services in Collingwood.
To donate or volunteer please call 705-739-6916 or email [email protected].
The Town of Collingwood has recently created a social and community services page on the town website with further resources for shelter services, crisis and helplines, mental health services and food programs across Collingwood. To access the page, click here.
