THUNDER BAY – Heading into this winter, Gary and Melody Macsemchuk were concerned Grace Place wasn’t going to have the funding to bring back its cold weather emergency shelter program.
That’s now been taken care of for the next few years.
Grace Place will be receiving $750,000 over the next three years from the Ontario Trillium Foundation for the Out of the Cold program, allowing it to continue just in time for its planned return on Thursday.
“It’s overwhelming that we have this funding and the program will be funded for three years,” Grace Place pastor Gary Macsemchuk said. “We don’t have to worry about that and the program can expand through this funding.”
Last year, operating with 10 beds, 174 different people utilized the shelter for a total of 1,561 stays. In addition to a warm place to sleep, clients were provided with laundry services, clothing, and three meals with dinner and breakfast served and a bagged lunch given for the day.
The program, which started last year as a pilot project with involvement from the Lakehead Social Planning Council and federal government, prioritized those living homeless who had been barred from other emergency shelters.
The funding will allow the program to hire an additional full-time staff position and added amenities including the availability of showers. A portion of the money will assist Shelter House’s Street Outreach Services for helping transport people to the facility.
As well, Grace Place will be able to provide five more beds each night.
“We had a few nights where it got really cold when we were overflow for Shelter House and they were at capacity that we had to turn people away,” Macsemchuk said. “This year, with 15 beds, we’re hoping to not have to turn anyone away.”
The funding application had been submitted earlier this year but the change in provincial government, and extension of the application deadline, meant that a decision was not expected until 2019.
Facing a potential funding gap, Grace Place went before Thunder Bay city council in September to ask for $50,000 to be able to have the program running for the start of November. That request was granted in October, though the money was to be returned if the funding was secured from another source.
“About two weeks ago I phoned the city clerk’s office and returned the cheque to them because the funding was made available at that time,” Macsemchuk said.
This year’s program will also include a social navigator component meant to connect people to other resources.
“They’ll also have the opportunity to have someone help them through the various systems and helps organizations to get out of sleeping here at Out of the Cold,” Macsemchuk said.
“You want people to get out of that situation where they have to stay here overnight and get onto housing. A lot of people need more than just housing.”
The six-month program will run until April 30.
