NEWS RELEASE
BUSBY CENTRE
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As the province has lifted most pandemic-related restrictions, COVID funding allocations, specific to sustaining the temporary hotel shelter model, have been decreased and directives from public health, as it relates to operations of congregate settings, have been revised.
The cost to operate temporary emergency shelter from hotels is not financially sustainable. Therefore, the shelter operators in the County of Simcoe are required to seek alternate options to stretch available dollars for as long as possible in an attempt to meet the growing need locally.
The emergency hotel shelter model that is currently operating at the Travelodge in Barrie will end on July 31. Both organizations have been working to transition to regular shelter operations locations and, in collaboration with the County of Simcoe, City of Barrie, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and community service organizations, are working toward a responsible solution to an alternate site(s) to accommodate the increased number of people requiring emergency shelter space.
Elizabeth Fry Society Simcoe Muskoka and the Busby Centre are in the process of fully returning to home locations and have increased some shelter capacity at home locations as well as the addition of one alternative site, operated by Elizabeth Fry Society Simcoe Muskoka, being established for up to 10 women. This additional increase in capacity for women’s sheltering met most of the need for Elizabeth Fry Society’s transition.
Elizabeth Fry Society Simcoe Muskoka and the Busby Centre were also able to increase capacity at their home locations to a combined 92 spaces. We would like to acknowledge the increased risk to our staff and participants in increasing our capacity while COVID is still on the rise in our community. We are happy to announce that we have had many individuals who have moved to, or who are moving to, housing this month. However, the devastating update is that our home and alternative location spaces are now filled and as of today, July 31, we will not have a viable shelter option for approximately 25 people. We anticipate that with all of the shelters being at full capacity, there will be a bottleneck of the intake process into shelter beds for the unforeseeable future.
Although COVID-19 pandemic-related funding allowed expansion of temporary emergency shelter beds in Barrie, the existing crisis remaining post-pandemic is the lack of attainable, safe, subsidized and supported housing options for people experiencing poverty and homelessness in our community. Without immediate available housing options or enough alternate emergency shelter beds, people experiencing homelessness will continue to be forced to live in unsheltered locations, forgoing safety and food security, will have limited access to regular basic needs and transitional support to obtain housing and will continue to be subject to bylaw and police enforcement, fines and evictions.
The Busby DETOUR Outreach Team is bracing for supporting the increased unsheltered individuals who are displaced throughout the community and when possible are diverting individuals coming from other communities with warm transfers to their origin community or other supports to avoid adding more individuals to an already over-capacity system of care.
We would like to thank our dedicated staff teams and partners including County of Simcoe, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, Barrie Community Health Centre, RVH Infection Prevention and Control Team, Empower Simcoe, Canadian Mental Health Association, Salvation Army, Youth Haven, Canadian Drug Mart and Hep Cure, who have supported the operations of the temporary pandemic hotel model since spring 2020.
A very special thank you the staff at Travelodge for being to welcoming and helpful during our time at Travelodge. A massive thank you to our incredible staff who have been on the front lines every day, providing compassionate and life-preservation care to those experiencing homelessness in our community. We are all devastated that the community was not able to find an alternative space for everyone to transition to and we will now have more individuals living rough.
We hope that the community will continue to support our organization to continue and increase our very important services in the community.
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