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Letter: Overlap services for the homeless to keep them out of the cold

Reader thanks the community for their generosity in helping the homeless
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(File)

It’s -15 C outside, and with the windchill it feels more like -30.

We are driving around the city picking up anyone (for free) who is out in the cold and needs a ride home or to the Off the Street Shelter.

This program has been running for over five years, but is lacking in at least one area. Our service stops running at 7:45 a.m., which often leaves many homeless waiting out in the cold for the Elgin Street Mission to open. Many of them choose to walk from the OTS to the Elgin Street Mission just so they can stay warm for an additional 30 minutes.

If these services could overlap by just half an hour then no one would be left standing outside in the cold waiting for the doors to open.

Also, many people are very generous at this time of year, and I would like to thank you on behalf of the homeless for your gifts. I would like to encourage everyone to remember the homeless all year long. So many of them have nothing at all and they could be your sister, brother, mother or father.

Sylvie Gauthier
Sudbury