Outreach teams have been out since early this morning, looking for the homeless who may have spent the night in very cold temperatures.
Executive Director for Harvest House Atlantic Marc Belliveau says they weren’t at full capacity overnight, but they were at overflow levels on the men’s side, “We had 32 men in last night and nine women. Tonight, with the outreach the we are doing in the community with people who could not typically access shelters, now can, and we expect to have a full house tonight.”
Belliveau says they had an outreach team out early this morning, “They were going around the neighbourhood looking for people who were still outside, inviting them to come in. Staff have all been made aware the we are allowing anyone who needs to come in to get out of the cold.”
He adds, outreach teams from the John Howard Society and YMCA Reconnect are out constantly trying to convince the homeless to go into shelters, but some just can’t be convinced, “We don’t typically run an outreach team unless it is cold like this. There are many different reasons and stigmas as to why people don’t access shelters. Some of that is the problem with the shelter. In the past, there was some rigidity that was there. Some people just don’t want to follow the rules and be in shelters. But there are teams out on a regular basis trying to invite people into shelters.”
A drop-in warming centre was also set up at the House of Nazareth for any non-registered guests, with the help of the John Howard Society. It will be open again tonight.
