A new warming centre for people who are homeless opened on Nov. 25 at Energy Court, running from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m., seven nights a week at the former location of the supervised consumption site.
Run by the Go-Give Project, an outreach organization that began in 2020, the warming centre will hold 50 people, as well as staff, offering a place to stay out of the winter weather.
Evie Ali, Go-Give Project’s executive director, told Sudbury.com the team had just added 18 new staff members, and more to come, after going through approximately 70 resumes to staff the centre. Each new staff member has a background in social services and was offered two full days of training.
Each shift will have a minimum of three support staff and two non-uniformed security personnel on hand.
The Go-Give project has also made allowances for each staff member to be entitled to six free sessions with the Sudbury Counselling Centre in order to manage their own needs during what can be a stressful job, said Ali.
As clients enter, they will be asked to register and complete an intake form, which Ali said allows the staff to track the volume of clients, as well as demographic data that will help with service delivery..
There is also a suggestion box for clients to request certain services or changes, as well as one for employees in the back staff room.
To combat what is often seen as a limitation to shelter and warming centre use — the inability to store belongings — clients who use the centre are able to store large items in a storage bin, labelled with their name.
And if someone forgets their items there? “Well, we have an outreach team to let them know,” said Ali with a laugh.
The funding for the warming centre, as well as increased hours at both the Samaritan Centre and the Off the Street shelter, comes in the wake of a failing grade on the city’s homelessness report card for 2023, and the status of the By-Name List in Sudbury.
As of Nov. 14, there are 306 individuals actively homeless: 114 are staying in encampments, 73 are unsheltered, 54 are in shelter, and 65 are provisionally accommodated or “unknown.”
Approved during the Oct. 15 Community and Emergency Services committee meeting, the centre will operate until April 30, 2025, with $50,000 needed to re-purpose the trailer — including removal of interior walls to accommodate 1,060 square feet of open space and the addition of a third washroom.
The Go-Give project was the only bidder to submit a request to operate the overnight warming centre. The cost to operate the facility until its closure at the end of April, including set-up and training staff, is estimated at $508,769.07.
According to the training documentation that the Go-Give Project provided to Sudbury.com, each shift at the warming centre is responsible for detailed communication and documentation of the evening events, and a full debrief is given at the beginning and end of each shift.
There is a code of conduct in place to protect the staff and other warming centre clients, and failure to follow the code will result in removal from the centre. To ensure the warming centre remains a low-barrier facility, those who are asked to leave are allowed back the next night. Bans lasting longer than one night must be approved by the management team. Ali said if possible, they would try to co-ordinate other services for the banned individual.
Each staff member has overdose training, as well as full knowledge of the Go-Give Project protocols for elevated risks, including weapons, fire, suicide or a mental health crisis.
Greater Sudbury has had warming centres previous to this one in Energy Court, and operating challenges have closed them all, including those run by the YMCA and the Centre de santé communautaire du Grand Sudbury. Last winter, 2023, there was no warming centre after the closure of the one run by the now-shuttered SACY, housed in a portion of 199 Larch Street in 2022.
Jenny Lamothe covers vulnerable and marginalized communities for Sudbury.com
