Responding On the Ground
By Stephanie Mancini
Originally Published December 2022
It snowed today. And along with the snow came reminders of the November 11, 2019 snowstorms that brought The Working Centre into the work of providing shelter. “Waterloo region is digging out of its worst winter storm in years after more than 25 centimetres of snow fell Monday”, said a report from CTV News.
Those of us responding directly to the day-to-day survival needs of increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness in our Region knew that we needed immediate action. A phone call to Fr. Toby Collins at St. Mary’s Church in downtown Kitchener led us to hosting a month-long people-sleeping-on-the-floor pop-up shelter for 200 individuals in November of 2019.
Since then there have been many positive changes.
St. Mary’s Church continues to lean creatively into the issues of homelessness with their deep sponsorship of A Better Tent City, with 50 cabins that support around 50+ people to have a place to call home. Tiny Home Takeout continues to offer engagement and food in downtown Kitchener.
St. Andrew’s Church leaned into the challenge for the winter of 2021, where we hosted a shelter in their church that served 60 people a night.
The Region of Waterloo has strategically leaned into the issues through their August 2022 motion to add a Hybrid Encampment model (like the space at A Better Tent City), new shelter space, and new Interim Housing spaces. The work on this strategy continues and will have a positive impact over the next few months.
We saw new supportive housing open at OneRoof and YWCA Block Line Road.
As people at University Ave found housing (21 people have found ongoing supportive housing), we have welcomed new people in from the encampments and the motels.
We welcome the re-opening of the YW shelter space hosted by SHIP (48 spots by the end of November), and the completion of the House of Friendship shelter on Weber St. in Waterloo (adding 74 new spaces projected for January).
The east end of Kitchener has been adjusting with us to the new shelter space at the old Schwaben Club on King St. E., where we host 70+ people a night, and see 15-20 people a night on a wait-list.
All of these efforts are significant, but somehow are just not enough. We have invested in a region that is a hub of innovation, which attracts people to work and thrive in this community. Now the time has come to continue to invest in the people that are left out of this reality. There are those who are experiencing homelessness, and those facing extreme financial hardship to maintain their housing.
In our daily work we often find community development goals are pushed aside as we focus on basic survival, one person at a time. We visit encampments all over the city, welcome 250-300 people a day at St. John’s Kitchen, support people in motels and interim housing and shelter, and help family households find work and access to benefits to make ends meet. Through all of this we are overwhelmed by the numbers of people who are desperate to meet basic needs, as we work to help each person feel known, recognized and loved.
Every religious tradition has a parable based on welcoming the stranger, of making room for one more. Given the complexities of deep dislocation, of mental health issues, of the impact of deep addiction to mind-bending drugs, this hospitality is happening most often in government supported and organized services.
This work we are doing is a skill, a calling, a work of mercy, a work of love. We as a wider community are called to lean in:
To contribute blankets, gloves, hats, and boots.
To know that if we are to support everyone, then all of our neighbourhoods will be effected by homelessness as we search for suitable locations for housing and shelter – how do we adapt thoughtfully to this reality?
To know that an ambulance arriving at a shelter isn’t a problem, but is a life-saving moment for a group of people growing increasingly unwell who do not have adequate access to healthcare.
To influence our political representatives to spend precious resources on supporting people who are most left out.
To call for increased health, mental health and addictions supports.
How do we support one another to develop the emotional and community resilience to make change happen? We know we have to dig deeper to find the ways to influence this reality so that some of us are not sitting inside our homes warm and housed, while others remain outside growing increasingly disenfranchised and desperate for the money that feeds an addiction. How do we reconcile this reality?
We know that a welcoming community and access to resources is a key antidote to the issues before us. If we put all our work into providing for basic needs, where is the capacity to create community that helps to shift the balance of despair? If we are strategic and intentional we can still make a difference.
One of our outreach workers reached out recently – “someone else needs to hear about this”. Increasingly we are seeing untenable moments, people living in extreme situations that do not match the ethics we hold as a community. These moments are becoming more and more frequent as the weather gets colder. With hearts broken open we respond with every possibility we can muster.
All we can do is to stand in the place that says this is an unacceptable reality, where we continue to stand in love and solidarity, acting-in a moment at a time, to a reality that should not be happening. So many people work together to make the work of caring kindness possible. We have such gratitude for the generosity, for the solidarity, while also calling for more definitive actions to shift these realities. We choose to stand together in hope.