Hamilton mayor calls for review of cold weather response after ‘policy failure’ leaves drop-in centre in limbo
Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath is calling for a review of the city's cold weather alert response after homeless residents were almost left without an overnight warming centre amid frigid temperatures last week.
On Christmas Eve, the city's medical officer of health cancelled the cold weather alert that had been issued as of Dec. 23 - which saw the city blanketed with snow and hit with a wind chill of close to -30 C.
That cancellation meant all city-funded warming centres - both daytime and overnight - were shuttered, even as temperatures stayed well below the freezing mark.
Cold alerts in Hamilton are activated when temperatures are expected to hit lows of -15 C or -20 C with the wind chill.
The cancellation, which happened around 7 p.m. on Dec. 24, seemingly left unhoused residents without a warming centre for Christmas Eve with just three hours notice.
That was until the community came forward, Jennifer Bonner, executive director of The Hub, which operates the city's only drop-in, overnight warming centre for unhoused people during cold alerts, said on Twitter.
The Hamilton Community Benefits Network stepped in to fund the centre for the night, Bonner wrote in a tweet. The Spectator has reached out to Bonner and is awaiting a response.
According to Bonner, the drop-in facility costs less than $3,000 to run for the night and is staffed by a group of peers as well as students from both McMaster University's medical school and advanced police studies at Mohawk College.
Generosity continued for the centre, which was able to remain open on the nights of both Christmas and Boxing Day thanks to community-driven donations, Bonner said in a tweet.
While the show of community care was applauded on Twitter, it was also met with fierce criticism for the recently elected city council, with many calling for more warming centres and changes to the rules surrounding the response to cold alerts.
Horwath took to Twitter Monday night to announce she would be seeking a full review of the protocol so that this does not happen again."
The Spectator reached out to the mayor's office Tuesday but Horwath was unavailable for an interview, according to spokesperson Alia Khan, who directed the newspaper to the mayor's tweet.
Councillors Cameron Kroetsch and Nrinder Nann both took to Twitter to thank volunteers at The Hub and community members who donated to the organization, while also calling for change to the city's cold alert response.
Kroetsch described the situation as a policy failure," while Nann said money for winter support for unhoused residents was not in place soon enough to be responsive this season."
I will join my council colleagues in overhauling our winter supports and service plan to help fill gaps," wrote Nann. Without adequate & sustainable health and housing funding it will all just be Band-Aids."
Christmas Eve was not the only time in the last week that unhoused folks in Hamilton lacked a warm place to stay out of the cold.
On Dec. 23, the winter storm shuttered libraries across the city for the day and forced recreation centres to close early. Both types of facilities are used as warming centres during their regular operating hours.
Recreation centres were closed as of 4 p.m. that day, leaving a six-hour gap until The Hub opened its doors on Vine Street.
Fallon Hewitt is a reporter at The Spectator. fhewitt@thespec.com