Hamilton shelters scramble to isolate positive COVID-19 cases in buildings

Hamilton shelters are packed as operators scramble to manage outbreaks by isolating residents who have coronavirus from those who don't while demand mounts during a deep freeze.

It's hardly an ideal situation to gather numbers of people together and trying to cohort those who are positive and those who are not currently experiencing COVID," Katherine Kalinowski, chief operating officer with Good Shepherd Centres, said Tuesday.

The difficult scenario unfolds during an ongoing staffing crunch that has intensified during the gruelling pandemic and overlapped with an opioid crisis punctuated by overdoses at shelters.

COVID has only increased those pressures and particularly now with very cold weather, the need for space for people who don't have a home is more urgent than ever," Kalinowski said.

The city has asked shelters to accept new arrivals - if there's space - irrespective of outbreaks in buildings.

Public health is trying to balance the risks, particularly in times like this, where we have very cold weather outside and the risk of COVID-19, as well," Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city's medical officer of health, said Monday.

The city's sole designated isolation space for people who are homeless has reached its limit, a doctor who cares for shelter residents said Tuesday.

We have 15 isolation beds. That's it. They're long since full. We've got hundreds of positives," said Dr. Kerry Beal, lead physician with the Shelter Health Network.

They're trying to put the most at-risk people in there as other people leave there," said Beal, whose team has vaccinated and tested residents and staff at shelters and other congregate settings throughout the pandemic.

But due to limited staffing, stretched even thinner during the highly transmissible Omicron-fuelled wave, the city says it's not opening another isolation centre.

As such, we are working with our agencies to support isolation in situ, and are exploring financial and other supports we can offer to limit spread."

As of Tuesday, there were several outbreaks at spaces for people experiencing homelessness or domestic violence, topping 90 cases between them, according to the city's website.

But that count seemed to shift as social-service agencies received word of test results or waited for outbreaks to time out, revealing a fluid situation.

For instance, Mission Services noted its hotel overflow program at the Four Points by Sheraton, which halted admissions last week, was still in outbreak, despite not being reflected in the city's official count.

As well, the agency's daytime drop-in and 15-bed shelter program for women on Wentworth Avenue North was declared back in outbreak," Wendy Kennelly, associate executive director, said late Tuesday.

We are holding on in terms of staffing," Kennelly said, referring to the added task of isolating people on site. It's been a challenge and required some creative thinking - but for the moment we are OK."

At 22 cases among residents, the largest outbreak was at Good Shepherd's 80-bed overflow site at the former Cathedral boys' high school on Main Street East, according to the city's figures Tuesday.

Meanwhile, cases at the Salvation Army men's shelter on York Boulevard sat at 18, with 13 residents and five staff testing positive, spokesperson Billy Canning wrote in an email.

We are near capacity and client intake is paused to minimize the potential spread of COVID-19 to protect the health and safety of both our staff and clients."

The Salvation Army has reconfigured administrative spaces" at the 82-bed Booth Centre to create safe isolation options for clients," Canning added. With temperatures dropping considerably in recent days, this too has put additional pressure on services."

Hamilton's current shelter capacity is 548 spaces, which is up from 341 before the pandemic struck in March 2020.

In December, the city announced it was temporarily halting the admission of couples into its hotel overflow program due to growing concerns over domestic violence.

During a recent visit to Wesley Urban Ministries to get a bite to eat, Sherri Ogden, who lived at an encampment this past fall before the city broke it up, said she was again in a tent.

I'm staying (at) the park right now with my boyfriend," said Ogden, noting they didn't want to be separated.

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com