The Gilbert Centre has been awarded the contract to operate a seasonal cooling centre in Barrie for homeless residents, the result of an equal partnership between the County of Simcoe and the City of Barrie.
The cooling centre is located in Barrie By The Bay, at 80 Bradford St., Suite 525, and is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, effective immediately, until mid-September 2023.
“Cooling centres are just one small part of a larger strategy to build up the lives of those who need us,” said Simcoe County Warden Basil Clarke. “I’m confident that our overall strategy…will have a massive impact on the people and communities we serve.”
Its capacity is variable, depending on need, and its undetermined cost will be split between the county and city, officials say.
“In the heart of compassion, and as temperatures rise, we are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of every individual in our community,” said Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall. “Together with the County of Simcoe and the Gilbert Centre, we stand united in our commitment to embrace our vulnerable homeless population and fulfill a need that was brought to our attention by our social services agencies.”
“Here at Gilbert Centre we value dignity, empowerment and leading with radical compassion,” said executive director Dale Boyle. “Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and we are looking forward to expanding our services to encompass a cooling centre where we can provide just that.”
Mina Fayez-Bahgat, the county’s general manager of social and community services, said ending chronic homelessness is one of the main goals of a larger county strategy.
“We will be announcing cooling centre locations throughout the region,” he said. “Ensuring that wrap-around services and supports are in place within these cooling centres is critical to offering clients the support they need to help achieve these collective goals.”
In early June, Fayez-Bahgat said there are approximately 1,000 people in Simcoe County experiencing homelessness and half of them are from Barrie.
The Gilbert Centre will not only provide much-needed cooling services, it will enhance the level of support offered to those who find themselves homeless. Services available there will include assistance in finding housing, basic healthcare support, healthy food options, counselling and social support.
Fayez-Bahgat has said cooling centres exist in many forms — places already open to the public, libraries, community centres, etc. — in which the county does not play a role. Its service providers will often utilize their space during the daytime as well — shelters and housing resources centres — but as the system service manager, designated by the province, this service is not within the county’s mandate.
“The reason we have gone beyond our mandate on the cooling and warming centres is that we want to ensure that our services — housing help, outreach and homelessness prevention — are being offered at a place where people are coming inside for what could be the first time to engage our system,” he told BarrieToday earlier this month.
“Having the service out and open is obviously critical,” Nuttall said of the cooling centre, “and we obviously support the county’s decision-making on social services. From the city’s perspective we wanted to see this funded and the services offered, but I think overall these are social services and the details and actual decisions on the ground are made between the county and the social service agencies that are providing the service.”
The Gilbert Centre is a community-based, not-for-profit, charitable organization that has been providing programs and services in Simcoe Muskoka for more than 25 years.
The County of Simcoe, recognizing a need to help the homeless, depending on weather, sought qualified and experienced operators to run, on a one-time basis, cooling centres in Barrie, Orillia, Collingwood, Alliston and Midland, from July 17 to Sept. 15 this year.
Bids closed Friday, July 7, 2023 at 2 p.m. on a request for expression of interest, to provide cooling centres across Simcoe County.
The county will make a call for proposals in mid-August for a warming centre, for Barrie’s colder weather.
A warming and cooling centre, and food distribution centre, are part of a controversial May 17 direct motion passed by city council to deal with chronic homelessness and enhance public safety in Barrie.
These measures also include dealing with drug addiction, mental health problems, shelter, counselling, limiting camping in city parks, feeding the hungry in public places and a panhandling ban. The city has committed as much as $825,000 to these initiatives in each of the next two years.
Some of these measures were to become changes to Barrie’s parks use and nuisance bylaws, but on June 21 council sent them back to staff to clarify and update the language.
On Wednesday the city announced an agreement with Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General to use a shuttle service to allow those released from Central North Correctional Centre (CNCC) in Penetanguishene to get closer to home, or where they lived before spending time behind bars.
Nuttall said the regular drop-off in Barrie of recently released prisoners puts additional pressures on the city’s social service agencies. He said Barrie doesn’t have the resources in place to support those brought to Barrie from prison on a regular basis.
The shuttle service is anticipated to start in September 2023.
Carolyn Boyer, an advocate for Barrie’s homeless who lives in the downtown, questions the shuttle service.
“Most people I have listened to, those released from the correctional system, have no homes to go to” she said. “Their life stories are tragic, trauma filled.
“Where, indeed, can one, released from jail, or any institution, go to find a friend, an accepting community, a decent room, nourishing food, job opportunities with a living wage, a neighbourhood without a NIMBY attitude?” Boyer asked.
A public meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 19, at community safety committee’s meeting, on chronic homelessness, addiction and mental health supports in Barrie.
General committee and city council are scheduled to meet Aug. 16 and these matters, and other measures, could be on the agenda.
