THUNDER BAY — A south end warming centre is ready to open its doors to help the homeless and others escape the cold again this year after securing crucial funding – though it says it will need a boost from the community to make the program a success.
People Advocating for Change through Empowerment (PACE) will convert half of the building it rents on Victoria Avenue — named the blue sky room, after its painted ceiling — into a warming centre in the coming weeks.
The move was made possible after PACE was recently approved for a second year of funding through the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB), securing $50,000.
Executive director Georgina McKinnon said that will cover wages for four seasonal staff to operate the warming centre. For other needs, like having warm clothing and food to give out, PACE relies on community donations.
Last year, for example, the RFDA and other community groups provided weekly lunches.
“We're always looking for more,” said McKinnon. “We'll be looking for donations or funding for supplies and extra stuff if possible, because I'm thinking we're going to be pretty busy.”
PACE plans to run the warming centre for 12 hours a day, seven days a week. The tentative start date of Dec. 1 can be moved up if temperatures dive, McKinnon said.
In addition to a place to escape the cold, the centre also offers food and drinks, warm clothing, and peer support.
“It's a really good place,” said McKinnon. “We get a lot of good feedback from everybody that they don't know what they’d do without us here.”
The program answers what staff call growing needs for supports for those living on Thunder Bay’s streets.
Kyle Arnold, who coordinates PACE’s warming and cooling centre, says the warming centre averaged close to 200 users a day, up from under 150 the year before.
“It gives them a safe space to be able to interact with their friends away from drugs, away from temptations within the community,” he said.
All told, PACE logged 14,000 visits to the centre over the course of last winter, and has estimated about 80 per cent of visitors are homeless.
The agency also operates a cooling centre during the summer
To staff the centre, the agency looks to find people who have lived experience with mental health and addictions issues – an approach Arnold calls key to its success.
“When the clients come in, they know I've been through what they've been through, when I tell them I know how it feels when they're dopesick,” he said. “All of our staff are like that here… We know what the struggle is like, we know what living on the streets like.”
“I believe when you have staff that have that lived experience, it's just different — clients see it and they open up to us.”
Ideally, Arnold said he hopes programs like the warming centre will secure permanent funding in the future, calling them essential.
“I think it's really important that this become permanent, because if it wasn't, what would happen to those clients?” he asked.
The DSSAB, which allocates provincial homelessness dollars, has increasingly embraced outreach-based programs like PACE.
The agency committed a large chunk of funding to support homelessness outreach for the first time last year, awarding nearly half a million dollars for projects like the “care bus,” warming centres, and an encampment outreach program.
Those dollars helped support what McKinnon calls a crucial second warming centre on the city’s north side, operated by Elevate NWO.
“I think it's excellent that we're not the only option. We have a different demographic at both ends of the city and we have limited space,” she said.
PACE is always looking for help from the community to support its programming, McKinnon said. The centre accepts monetary donations, while items like clothing, winter gear, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and feminine products, oatmeal, and coffee, are in high demand.
Those looking to donate or learn more can visit PACE’s website or headquarters at 510 Victoria Avenue East.
