Belleville’s former police station on Dundas Street will be welcoming people to come in out of the cold this winter but the city wants some counselling involved as well.
At its meeting Monday night, city council has approved a staff recommendation to use the former police gymnasium as an Overnight Warming Centre.
The gym is large enough to permit social distancing during the COVID-19 period, and is located on an arterial road with public transit services.
As a result of the pandemic there will be full registration and contact tracing required.
The Centre will be operated November 15 to April 15, on nights when temperature hits -15C, or -20C including wind-chill factor, from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. Councillor Paul Carr called for involvement by social services to ensure some counselling is available.
“Having Public Health and Human and Community Services involvement can direct them to services they may require.”
Carr adds, “I use the example of identification. If someone doesn’t have identification they can’t access different government services. So it may be that simple.”
“But if our organizations are not doing any kind of outreach or intake with a sector of the population that’s in the warming centre then we’re missing out on an opportunity to help them.”
Mayor Mitch Panciuk emphasized the city already pays Hastings County to provide social services.
“We’re not doing that to duplicate the service of Hastings County. We’re not doing that to duplicate their emergency services and their outreach and what not. We’re doing it because we feel in these circumstances the extreme temperatures require something different.”
Last winter the warming centre was activated 24 times with an average attendance of 23 people.
The staff report indicates clients were local and transient.
