Ottawa shelters crowded as cold snap continues
Outreach workers search for people who need help
Cindy Stewart steps out of the Salvation Army outreach van and hustles through the cold to the spot on Rideau Street where a man in a plaid jacket had been panhandling just seconds before.
“Peter!” she calls out, looking west toward Cumberland Street and then east toward King Edward Avenue.
The man has vanished in the short time it took to park the black van in a nearby parking lot.
“A lot of our clients move very quickly,” Stewart says. “He might have gotten some money and went to get something to eat.”
The cold snap means emergency shelters are crowded, but outreach workers such as Stewart continue to search the streets to bring those without a home indoors.
The van, funded by the City of Ottawa, will transport people from the street to any shelter.
The Salvation Army men’s hostel has 168 beds but can use mats to accommodate up to 200 people if necessary.
The Shepherds of Good Hope has 102 beds for men, and the organization also runs a 70-bed shelter for women and transgender adults.
The Ottawa Mission has 235 beds — with room for up to 30 mats in the chapel for overflow.
In the rare case that all these spots are taken, there’s a last resort, says Shirley Roy from the Ottawa Mission.
“We won’t turn anyone away,” she says.
“We have a lounge area in front of our front desk, which is open 24 hours a day. People can come in and sit and be warm and put their head on a table and have a nap.”
The Salvation Army and the Ottawa Mission serve five meals a day — three for those staying at the shelter and two community meals for those who might have housing but can’t afford food. Shepherds of Good Hope serves four.
The shelters work together to find room when there’s crowding but some people are reluctant to come inside, Roy says.
“That’s a big problem with people with mental illness, like anxiety or paranoia — they don’t want to be in a crowded situation. They have a hard time coming in even when it’s cold,” Roy said.
But after so many days of severe cold, more and more people are choosing shelters, Stewart says.
The van, staffed by two workers from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m., responds to calls for service and tours downtown neighbourhoods in search of people out in the cold. With fewer people on the street during the past few days, it has mostly served to transfer people from shelter to shelter, hospital to shelter and shelter to hospital.
The van doesn’t stop once during an hour-long loop of central Ottawa late Friday afternoon — departing from the Booth Centre on George Street, zigzagging through the ByWard Market, then rolling through Centretown, Chinatown and back to its starting point — before pulling into the parking lot on Rideau Street as the day turns to dusk.
Stewart knows Peter prefers to sleep on the street rather than in a shelter. She and her partner will try to convince him — or anyone found sitting on a curb in the cold — to spend the night indoors. Those who refuse will be checked for signs of hypothermia and frostbite, then offered blankets and winter gear if they have none.
The search for Peter is interrupted by the arrival of Daniel. When the temperature gets cold, he seeks out heated garages.
“I’m not crazy about sleeping in a shelter,” he says. He explains that he was once attacked by five men and doesn’t feel safe surrounded by others.
Daniel wears a backpack over his winter jacket, with heavy boots on his feet and a trapper’s hat on his head. He says the thin fleece gloves on his hands won’t cut it as the temperature is forecast to dip down to -21 C overnight.
“Do you promise me you’re going to stay in a shelter tonight?” Stewart asks. “Yes,” he answers. “You won’t sleep outside?” she asks again. “No.”
Stewart hands him a thick pair of gloves.
“People on the street are smart,” she says. “They know their limits.”