Residents demand better conditions at pest-infested temporary women’s shelter

What's it like to live in the Hamilton temporary women's shelter now occupying the old Cathedral boys' school on Main Street East?

It's cold, full of mice and bugs, dangerous, and loaded with asbestos, says Brenda Hind, who moved there with dozens of other women on March 1 when the city transferred them from being housed in a west Hamilton hotel. The Cathedral women's shelter is run by Good Shepherd Centres in Hamilton, a non-profit health, housing and human services agency for people in need.

Hind held a media conference outside the old building at the corner of Main East and Emerald Wednesday morning to demand Good Shepherd and the city address conditions at the temporary shelter, and to help residents transition to permanent housing.

We are surrounded by asbestos that we breathe at night, we sleep with bedbugs and mice crawling on our faces and heads and we eat within metres of overflowing sewage in our dining spaces," Hind said. We keep being told the space is temporary, but nothing is being done to help us find permanent residence."

Hind said about 60 women live in the crowded shelter where internal temperatures can drop to 10 C at night, with more beds being opened every day. She called on the city and Good Shepherd to guarantee clean drinking water, clear fire safety plans, removal of asbestos and treatment for airborne allergens such as mould, access to WiFi and hydro, more ability to access their lockers, and safer working conditions for staff at the facility.

Her calls for action are supported by the Hamilton Encampment Support Network and the Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team, also known as HAMSMaRT.

There are very significant pressures in the women's shelters system and the Cathedral site is obviously not purposefully built for emergency shelter, said Katherine Kalinowski, Good Shepherd's chief operating officer in Hamilton.

It's a big, old, drafty building, but we have staff on a regular rotation monitoring thermostats in different parts of the building to ensure appropriate temperature is maintained," she said, noting that some residents do open windows and impact the temperature. Space heaters are prohibited for safety reasons, so the shelter provides extra blankets to residents, she said.

We're new into the building and trying to iron some things out, but I do not have concerns about drinking water, hazardous exposure to asbestos and those kinds of things," she said. We have a well-articulated fire plan and fire inspections."

Like many old buildings, there is asbestos in this building, Kalinowski said. We don't have concerns about asbestos exposure that would create a hazard."

At the media conference, Hind accused staff of threatening residents with being thrown out onto the street if they talked to media, which Kalinowski denied. That is absolutely untrue, that did not happen. Nor would it happen; we do not have the right to tell people what they can and cannot say."

We would not stop women from expressing their opinions, their views or their points of view," Kalinowski said.

Good Shepherd is good at providing for residents' dietary needs with three full meals a day and meals available after hours, she said. As for pests, I will tell you that when we made the transition into that building, there was a significant problem with mice activity throughout the building," and that a professional pest control firm visits the site every two weeks. We've seen a radical decline in mouse activity."

There is also no issue with drinking water because the building has copper pipes and not lead pipes, she said.

We will certainly engage with those expressing concerns, review our positions on these things and be open to hearing what people have to say," Kalinowski said. If we can improve things in our programs, we will certainly do so."

Edward John, Hamilton's director of housing services, said in a statement the city is satisfied that Good Shepherd is taking steps to ensure clients are comfortable. The shelter currently has 58 residents and is ramping up to accommodate 80 to 100 beds if required on a temporary basis.

Paul Morse is a Hamilton-based reporter at the Spectator. Reach him via email at pmorse@thespec.com