GIMME SHELTER

New emergency shelter planned for Murray Street Baptist Church won't be year-round

The city may be setting up cots for the homeless in the dining hall at Murray Street Baptist Church this winter, with people from the Brock Street Mission as staff.

Councillors will review a new city staff report to recommend it this coming Tuesday.

If council agrees, the city may fund the program at Murray Street on a trial basis from January to April.

The congregation will be allowed to decide whether to commit to offering the program year-round for up to two years. While the congregation doesn’t want “active substance abuse” in the church, the staff report explains that homeless people with “substance use or mental health concerns” will be served by the shelter.

The now-defunct Warming Room emergency shelter previously occupied the lower level of Murray Street Baptist Church, but it closed July 1 for renovations, prompting homeless people to pitch tents at Victoria Park for the summer.

To run the new program for a year would cost $248,400. The staff report says the idea is to allow staff to put each homeless person’s name on a priority list for housing and help them find permanent shelter.

The $248,400 would also cover rent and custodial costs, which will be necessary because the dining hall would have to be cleaned daily so it can be used during daytime hours for other purposes.

Meanwhile an architect’s report recommends $80,000 in work required to the dining room at Murray Street Baptist Church so it can serve as a safe overnight dormitory under building code and fire code. The space won’t likely be ready by Nov. 1, the report states.

In that case the cots for the homeless in the auditorium of the Peterborough Public Library may continue to be offered.

When the Warming Room closed, homeless people set up tents in Victoria Park, and council opened cots in the public library as an emergency measure. The tent city was dismantled in August when tenters were faced with eviction from the County of Peterborough, which owns the park.

Many tenters moved to Emmanuel United Church, where they camped with clergy permission until last week.

Some homeless people living there said they were going to couch surf with friends, as they dismantled their tents last week, but none said they would use the library cots.