St. Matthew’s House puts Renee back on Barton
Renee Wetselaar steps into position of executive director
When I think how Hamilton got to where it is (and where it isn’t) these days, its struggles, triumphs and progress, however halting, over recent decades, some people rise to mind.
Renee Wetselaar is one of them. Some nibble at the margins of their city, but Renee bit right in early. She’s been in the thick of civic life, at its creamy centre, her whole adult life, from her 1980s satirical garage punk sextet, The Dik Van Dykes, to the different stages of a city-building career.
She was co-chair of the Hamilton and Region Arts Council, director of the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre, program director with Hamilton YWCA, senior social planner with the Social Planning and Research Council.
Another of her jobs, in the mid-1990s, that has haunted her as a kind of “one-that-got-away,” was cultural co-ordinator for the enormous Barton Street Revitalization Project. The Queen’s Park-approved undertaking, which promised to infuse as much as $10 million (including the development of an arts village) into the historic and chronically challenged Hamilton thoroughfare and its enclaves, was a creation of the Bob Rae NDP government.
When Mike Harris got elected, the project got ejected — in 1995. Politics. Don’t we know it here.
Renee loved Barton Street, the excitement of leading up a project with such amply funded potential to turn around a big slice of the city. It broke her heart when it didn’t happen.
“I’m back on Barton Street,” Renee told me excitedly late last summer. And the reason she’s back is an organization that, like Renee, rises to mind when we think of the shape of this city.
St. Matthew’s House, of which Renee has been named executive director. Located at Barton near Wentworth, St. Matthew’s, originally under the aegis of the Anglican Church, is a nonprofit, multi-service agency focusing on child care, emergency food, seniors, as well as people living in poor health or with little means.
It’s been a force for social good, “a constant in a world of chaos,” as Renee puts it, since 1968.
“Some things have changed and some haven’t,” Renee tells me as we sit in the attractive Emerald Coffee Co. café (on Barton near Emerald), one of the things that has changed, helping put a new look, a new face, on the street.
“There is still some sense of decline, but not in the neighbourhoods (around Barton) where there’s more ownership and pride of property” than there was in the 1990s when she last worked here.
Like other parts of Barton, St. Matthew’s House itself, the historic building, is about to undergo a major renewal and renovation, including a new elevator.
The areas, indoor and out, used for child care, were overhauled in 2016 and are much improved and very impressive, as I can see when Renee takes me through, with many young ones at play — there are 52 spots at the daycare, a vital resource for families needing affordable help, and they’re hoping to add 30 more.
Much about the building and about the work they do at St. Matthew’s is in flux. The food service that runs on the ground floor is being refined, with culturally appropriate food options, like Halal, and other advancements. St. Matthew’s food banks provide emergency food to more than 30,000 people each year. Aside from the food program at the home building, St. Matthew’s House runs food banks at St. Helen’s Community Centre and is poised to help start the East Hamilton Food Centre.
Some of St. Matthew’s services, including one of the food banks and the seniors’ program, were under threat of being discontinued. The United Way had to cut its funding to St. Matthew’s. But, after much community protest, new money was found and programs have been reinstated, in one form or another.
St. Matthew’s does much other community work, for example, finding accommodation that’s a good fit for seniors over 55 coming out of incarceration, shelters and hospitals. St. Matthew’s avails clients of a wealth of crossreferenced data that they have compiled and keep updated. It’s a another invaluable resource.
“We also have a strong eviction prevention program, advocating with landlords and clients,” says Renee.
Of course, as it is for all agencies, funding remains a challenge, and because of various cutbacks, St. Matthew’s House has had to divest itself of some properties.
But Renee, the team at St. Matthew’s and the community itself are used to stiff challenges.
Now there’s a renovation to look forward to and signs of hope.
“You’re seeing a revitalization,” says Renee. “Young people moving in (to the neighbourhoods), and people coming from Toronto. It’s nice to see it.”
And it’s nice to see Renee and Barton, back together again, where they belong.