Inside St. Catharines’ new temporary homeless shelter
Workers put finishing touches on Riordon Street facility before opening
It was a buzzing, banging and beeping whirl of activity Friday as workers hustled to get St. Catharines’ new temporary homeless shelter ready for its first occupants on Monday.
Multiple tradespeople were at the Riordon Street site putting on the finishing touches and testing systems before a walk through with city inspectors.
“We’re excited,” said Nicole Cortese, manager of homelessness operations for Niagara Region, as workers installed railings on an outdoor staircase nearby. “It’s going to be a long weekend of cleaning and setting up, but we’re excited to be able to offer this come Monday.”
The Niagara Region temporary shelter will be staffed 24 hours a day, offering residents support services in addition to a bedroom and three square meals.
It has 46 rooms, including some with double occupancy for couples or families — a first for the region.
“It’s not something that traditionally we’ve been able to do in Niagara region, as a lot of our shelters are dorm settings,” Cortese said. “There’s not a whole lot of privacy for folks, so we’re excited to offer that opportunity here.”
A peek inside a single-occupancy room Friday found a bed against a wall with a blue bedspread, an overhead reading light and under bed storage drawers. A desk with a chair sat beneath a window, while an open closet with cubby storage was in a corner. A mirror, towel rack and hooks were on the walls.
Down the hall, there were six showers, nine washrooms marked for men or women and a shared laundry.
‘‘ We’re excited to be able to offer this.
NICOLE CORTESE NIAGARA REGION
A separate building contained a large cafeteria that holds at least 55 people and will double as a space for the Region to offer programming.
“Our staff will work out of there during the day supporting folks with their housing goals and searches,” Cortese said, adding they’ll also have income supports, senior services, public health nurses and addictions, mental-health, and trauma supports.
“You name it, it will be really a place to access wraparound support.”
The accommodations were a stark contrast from across the street on Riordon, where six tents were pitched in the grass along the back concrete wall of a business and another could be seen nearby at the Highway 406 ramp.
Cortese said the Region will prioritize people for intake starting Monday with the help
of the Niagara Assertive Outreach Team and the team at Silver Spire United Church.
She said they’ll be targeting people living in encampments along Gale Crescent and in Richard Pierpoint Park to see if they want to come in and access shelter.
Niagara Region opened a temporary shelter at Silver Spire on St. Paul Street on Nov. 1 to meet demand while the Riordon facility was being delivered and installed.
Cortese said 49 people are currently staying at the church but not all will come to the Riordon shelter. With the end of the month coming, she said it’s common for some people to leave the shelter system when they get government cheques.
She said other shelter beds within the system, such as at an all-women’s shelter, will also be made available to those who want access.
“We’ll be keeping an eye on occupancy throughout the next few days to see where we can place folks within the system.”
The St. Catharines shelter is the first in the region made of modular components for quick assembly.
Craig Mitchell, project development leader with 720 Modular Solutions, said it’s been repurposed from northern Alberta where it was used as housing for workers in the oilsands and mining industries. The company relocated the components across the country and craned them into the St. Catharines city parking lot in January.
He said modular housing used in remote locations for workers is becoming more common in Canada to meet the need for homeless shelters. “It doesn’t matter the size of the community, there’s a need,” he said.
The company has installed similar shelters in Barrie and Charlottetown, PEI. He said there are more going up in PEI, Collingwood and Orillia.
Mitchell said the installation in St. Catharines is the fastest project they’ve done so far, which he credited to the collaboration and commitment of everyone involved.
“Exactly 30 days ago, we craned the modules in place. To turn this around in 30 days is absolutely phenomenal. It’s hats off to everyone — it’s St. Catharines, it’s Niagara Region, it’s all of our trade partners here, to turn this around with the amount of work to be done.”
When everything is cleaned up at the site, he said the end result will be good quality accommodations.
“It’s phenomenal, it really is. You’ve got tents across the street here right now. And so for them to have a bed, a warm place to sleep, you’ve got washrooms, showers, everything else ...
“I say if it’s good enough for the workers in the oilsands that are getting paid $100 an hour, I would suspect that it’s probably good enough for anyone else who needs a place to sleep.”
The modular shelter is expected to be in place for two years. Niagara Region is currently sourcing a permanent shelter location in St. Catharines.