Hot air vents at Hamilton City Hall blocked to keep homeless away
Roger Boyd has made the back entrance of city hall one of his many homeless outreach stops around downtown Hamilton.
There, he has handed out sleeping bags and tarps to people huddled around the vents that blast warm air from inside the municipal headquarters.
But this weekend, in the grips of winter, he discovered the city had blocked the area off with hoarding.
That struck a nerve, says Boyd, who has operated his mobile Men's Street Ministry for about five years.
What ticked me off was ... this is the only spot where they get some warmth without going into a shelter."
The city's goal was safety, says facilities director Rom D'Angelo.
With too many people hunkered down at the back doors, which serve as an emergency exit, it became a fire code issue, D'Angelo says.
There was just a lot of chaos there that created obstruction to the door."
Security footage also showed altercations and drug use among those - as many as 15 at one point - who'd gathered there, D'Angelo added.
Boyd says he gets it. Would you want that at your doorstep?" But, he added, I just feel there could have been a better solution."
Especially given the extreme cold.
The last couple of weeks, I thought I was going to frozen bodies because they weren't moving."
The hoarding also goes up as shelters, either at or near capacity, grapple with coronavirus outbreaks.
During cold alerts, when the temperature dips to -15 C or feels like -20 with the wind chill, recreation centres open as warming centres.
Two agencies that offer drop-in services, Wesley Day Centre and the Hub, are open into the evening and overnight, respectively.
But city hall wasn't designed as a warming centre," D'Angelo said.
At first, staff placed metal barriers down to discourage people from lying by the vents.
But that didn't work because the barriers were moved, so staff opted for the hoarding, which is open at the top, allowing the air to escape.
D'Angelo said staff will explore an alternative to the back door vents that could see the HVAC system exhaust directed elsewhere.
We're going to hire an engineering firm to look at it."
Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com