THUNDER BAY – In the two years since the Out of the Cold program has been in place, not a single homeless person has died in Thunder Bay because of exposure to the cold.
It’s a trend Melody Macsemchuk, who founded host Grace Place with her husband Gary, would love to see continue.
The couple began the Out of the Cold program to act as an overflow shelter on Simpson Street for those who might otherwise fall through the cracks, with the ultimate goal of finding them permanent housing and keeping them off the streets for good.
“There were 10 to 15 individuals who would be outside in the cold and couldn’t access any shelter, and then there were a lot of people who would freeze outside in the winter months in Thunder Bay,” Macsemchuk said.
“It’s keeping people alive and making sure nobody freezes outside on the streets.”
The program has been able to grow, from 10 beds under the original seed grant in 2017, to 15, which his helping even more people get their lives back.
“I think that one of the major impacts is we’ve been able to connect with the chronic homeless, ones that aren’t able to access any other shelter in the city of Thunder Bay. And their lives are changing,” Macsemchuk said on Friday at an event highlight the good work being done by the program, which runs from November to April and has been funded in part by a $750,000 Ontario Trillium Grant that will keep the program going through spring 2021.
“We’re able to connect with them to help them navigate around homelessness, also to talk about trauma in their lives and then to solve those issues that keep people homeless.”
The funding will also allows social services organizations, like the Lakehead Social Planning Council, to collect valuable data about a portion of the homeless population that might otherwise go uncollected.
In 2018-2019, there were 1,991 total overnight stays, 1,482 of which were by people identifying as Indigenous.
A staggering 38 per cent of the people who stayed there reported having no income whatsoever during the time period.
The numbers show half the homeless accessing the Out of the Cold program had been homeless between one and five years, while their reasons tended to be split between an inability to afford housing, shelter restrictions and mental health issues. Substance use also played a big factor.
Bonnie Krysowaty, a social researcher at the Lakehead Social Planning Council, said the program has made a major impact on the homeless population.
She said there was nowhere for many to turn.
“For example, if there’s a marital dispute between people and one of those people are at Shelter House, obviously the other partner can’t be there at the same time. That’s one example, but there are many, many reasons why people aren’t able to get shelter at emergency shelters.
“So this became kind of the overflow for that. What this program has been able to do is prevent deaths of homeless individuals in Thunder Bay.”
