Hamilton to spend most of $11.3M relief money on shelter space

Hamilton is using an $11.3 million provincial cash injection to continue expanding the city's shelter spaces, including for people who have been living in encampments. 

Paul Johnson, the director of Hamilton's emergency operations centre, said the money will be paid out retroactive to March 31 and will cover expenses to keep spaces open and add more.

"It allows us to maintain things at the Cathedral site, those hotel spaces ... all of those things, we didn't have a funding source. Normally we wouldn't be able to operate a new shelter on a regular basis. We wouldn't be able to have the number of hotel rooms being used night after night that we have now," he said Thursday morning.

"This really ensures the City of Hamilton does not have to go to the property taxpayers and say, 'You'll have to fund these types of interventions,' We're really thrilled the province has stepped up."

The city had to apply for the social service relief money and got every cent it was eligible to receive. Johnson added that the province has been helpful throughout the pandemic.

In a media release Wednesday, Flamborough-Glanbrook PC MPP Donna Skelly said the province is giving Hamilton $11,323,812 to run an isolation centre, three hotels and a drop-in centre. The money will also help renovate two existing shelters.

"We're working hand in hand with our partners to make sure they have the tools and flexibility they need to keep people safe," Skelly said in the release. 

The money is part of more than $241 million to help municipalities and Indigenous communities with shelter space, the release said. 

Meanwhile, the city evacuated a residential care facility, Emerald Lodge, last week because of what it was conditions prime for the spread of COVID-19. Some residents were staying in the former Cathedral Boys School, but Johnson said most of them have since found a place to stay.

There are also still 50 to 60 people living in about 20 encampment sites throughout the city. The city recently dismantled a large encampment on Ferguson Avenue North. These new funds will help provide space for those who want it.

"Without this expansion, we'd be in a position where we might have to say we don't have the space for folks. I know it's still tight in certain sectors but this allows us the chance to go out and say, 'OK, if we need another bank of 12 hotel rooms, let's go find them,' " Johnson said.

"And once they're in shelter we work with folks who get them into permanent housing but that usually takes a little longer."

He said the city is discussing how it can continue to expand hotel space and find a new emergency shelter space for women.