During the coldest snap of winter weather so far, with wind chills reaching well below -40 C earlier this week, the Thompson Homeless Shelter had no choice but to turn away dozens of people per night looking for a place to stay, sending them to dumpsters, alleys, wherever they can find a safe place to sleep.
It's nothing new, either - Paullette Simkins, executive director of the shelter as well as the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), which took over the shelter's operations in early 2009, says that the levels of shelter-seekers have been roughly the same since CMHA management began.
"I can say confidently that we are, at a minimum, turning away about 40 people each night," says Simkins. "Clearly there's a need for a bigger building."
The situation looked even worse for the shelter last week, when the fire department - at the shelter's request - went through the building and determined that it was only permitted to hold 18 clients overnight, a 25 per cent reduction from the current capacity of 24.
"We wanted to make sure we were using our resources to the best of our ability," explains shelter board chair Katie Isaac. "We wanted to make sure we were utilizing everything we had. It was a really innocent question that came up at the board table - how many people can we have there? Can we have more?"
At the discretion of city fire chief Ian Thompson, the capacity was allowed to remain at 24 while the city continued its investigation. "They described it to us as having made a decision on, not really inaccurate information, but the shelter falls in-between certain codings - it's not a dormitory, it's not a school, it's not whatever, so there's really no clean area it falls into, which causes some complications or confusion," says Isaac. The building's allowable capacity is based on information from national fire and building codes.
"The city understands the need for the shelter, and they too don't want to see anybody out in the cold," says Simkins. In addition to the fire department, the city has responded through Mayor Tim Johnston, who met with shelter officials to discuss the city's role in addressing homelessness. Simkins says part of the outcome of that meeting was that the city pledged to advocate on behalf of the shelter. "The City of Thompson remains committed to working with the shelter and all related agencies to address the important issue of homelessness in our community," wrote Johnston in an e-mail.
The fire department planned an on-site inspection of the shelter for the early part of this week, to further assess the capacity of the building, results of which were not available at press time. Until any decision is finalized, the shelter is being permitted to remain at its current capacity levels of 24 clients overnight and more during the day for drop-in activities.
Either way, that still leaves at least 40 people homeless in Thompson each and every night. "It's very sad," says Isaac. "People seek whatever shelter they can find."
"They grab boxes and they go behind a building," says Simkins of those turned away from the shelter. "They go in dumpsters, or recycling bins." So far this year, says Simkins, nobody has been reported as dead due to being unable to find a place to spend the night, but Isaac notes that "there's a huge potential for that to happen."
The Thompson Homeless Shelter is somewhat unique in that many of its clients are not permanently homeless, as they might be in other cities - a number of clients even hold jobs. With the city's rental vacancy rate at 0 per cent and no "geared to income housing," some clients use the shelter as transitional housing until they can find a more stable home. "The shelter is being used more as transitional housing as opposed to emergency shelter," explains Simkins. "It could be physical abuse from where they were living, addiction issues, lack of employment. We do currently have individuals that have jobs, but that are living at the shelter because they can't find anything they can afford." Yet others end up at the shelter because they come into Thompson and then find themselves stranded, unable to return home until the next day.
What the shelter would like to see is a bigger building which can accommodate those extra 40 clients, with room to spare. "I think it's an urgent need," says Simkins, who notes that the biggest reason it hasn't happened already is the difficulty of finding an available building.
"The main reason is the high numbers of people turned away," explains Isaac. "There's clearly a much larger need than the 24 we're able to provide beds for. It would be nice to be able to have increased programming, employment readiness stuff that we're not able to deliver on a regular, consistent basis. A bigger facility would give us more opportunity, and the biggest piece of it would be having a place to meet this kind of need that's clearly really prevalent."
Though the current facility is downtown, Simkins and Isaac say that a new building wouldn't necessarily have to be in that area. "We're a small community. Everything is easily accessible. I don't think it needs to be downtown. Wherever it is, the need is there. Build it and they will come."
"Thompson's relatively small," agrees Isaac. "I think that no matter where you are, if you needed that resource you'd find your way there."
While most people who have never used the shelter might not think of it as more than a place to sleep, it's a hub of activity during the day as well. "We have programming that goes on there during the day," explains Simkins. "If somebody didn't have the opportunity to sleep there because we were at full capacity, then they're coming in to warm up and sleep - and to eat, because we do provide them with three meals a day."
The shelter also offers employment training and similar life skills and outreach programs, as well as maintaining an outreach worker who actively advocates on behalf of 16 clients.
Also known as the Nanatowiho Wikamik Shelter, the Thompson Homeless Shelter moved to its current location on Churchill Drive in 2002, having previously been housed at 79 Selkirk Avenue. Before CMHA took over in 2009, it had previously been run by a number of different organizations, including Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre, the City of Thompson, and the Salvation Army.
