City keeps warming centres open after outcry from Hamilton community during Christmas cold spell

Hamilton has a few more options for people needing to stay warm this week, as an "interim solution" has been put in place to help what Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath recently called a "service gap for unhoused Hamiltonians." 

Two warming centres will be open: Central Memorial Recreation Centre, which will have extended hours this coming weekend on Dec. 31, Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, until 10 p.m., and The Hub, which will be open nightly from 10 p.m. until 10 a.m., in addition to its regular hours of 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., at least until Jan. 2. 

"We are humbled and overwhelmed with community support for these things and it's time we all start working together for real systemic change with community collaboration," Jennifer Bonner, executive director of The Hub, said Monday after community donations allowed the centre to remain open Saturday and Sunday night. 

Wednesday morning, CBC Hamilton spoke with someone named Robbie J. who said he had used The Hub the night before to warm up. 

"It should be open all week, there's a need. There are fine people here but they need a bigger facility, they limit it to 20 to 25 people here at a time," he said. 

He said he feels that the city is "focused on becoming an entertainment city" but leaves people like him behind.

Cold alert cancelled over the weekend

Up until this week, warming centres were funded by the city only when it issued a cold alert, when the temperature drops or is expected to drop below -15 C, or feels like -20 C. 

Last week, Environment Canada warned of a "significant winter storm" in Hamilton, starting the evening of Dec. 22 and carrying into the holiday weekend. It first issued a warning on Dec. 19, days ahead of the storm. 

The city issued a cold alert for Friday, Dec. 23. But on Saturday evening, shortly before The Hub was planning to open again for the night, the city cancelled the cold alert, saying "temperatures are no longer at or below minus 15 degrees Celsius or minus 20 with wind chill."

The cancellation left The Hub — the only overnight warming centre in the city — assuming it would have to be closed. 

"The HUB has [received] 4 calls in less than an hour from front line shelter workers looking to see if they can send folks over to a warming centre (males & females) that isn't open tonight. I just don't understand our system," Bonner said on Twitter at the time.

"This is absolutely brutal... It's not warm enough for people to be outside, & the city's encampment eviction enforcement has prevented people from having any chance to prepare for weather. People will suffer," said Claire Bodkin, a family doctor who has worked with the houseless community. 

According to Environment Canada, a "weather travel advisory" was in effect Saturday, with the possibility of strong winds, blowing snow and "extreme cold wind chills of near minus 30." 

A short time later, Bonner said the Hamilton Community Benefits Network told her it would cover costs for the evening so that the drop-in centre, at 78 Vine Street, could remain open.

"This community is so friggin awesome!... My team and I are prepping now to head down and open up," she said. 

Service gap 'alarming': Mayor

Horwath acknowledged Monday a service gap had occurred over the weekend. 

"On December 24th, there was a service gap for unhoused Hamiltonians during extremely cold weather. Council just recently approved funding of $125,000 for overnight warming centres, to offer emergency cold weather supports, but alarmingly, a gap in supports occurred," she said. 

"I will be seeking a full review of the City's Cold Alert and community response protocol so that this does not happen again."

Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroetsch said the city needed to act quickly. 

"I really hope we're not waiting until January 18," he said Monday, referring to the first General Issues Committee council would hold in the New Year. "There are only 2 options for the City - staff either implements the policy differently or the Mayor calls an emergency Council meeting."

By Tuesday afternoon, Kroetsch said the city had informed councillors that "an interim solution will be put in place to ensure that warming centres are open."

In early December, council approved the decision to dedicate $125,000 to emergency warming services for people living outdoors this winter.

The motion directed staff to take the funding from 2022 budget surpluses, or a reserve if necessary, and include an annual cold alert response for the same amount in council's 2023 operating budget deliberations.

"Thank you to the residents and organizations of #HamOnt who stepped up between Dec 24-25 to raise funds to enable the HUB to run overnight supports when the cold alert was cancelled by the technical definition of -15C," Coun. Nrinder Nann said Tuesday morning.

Nann said a few things "are clear" after this weekend — that the cold alert definition "needs to be changed," that the recently approved funds were "not in place soon enough to be responsive this season," and that the lack of provincial funding "has a direct impact."

Calls for change to cold alert threshold

Sarah Rehou, a burn researcher with Hamilton Health Sciences, told CBC last week the risk of frostbite and hypothermia is "enormous" for people living outdoors. 

She said the threshold that triggers cold alerts in Toronto and Hamilton — which are both -15 C — is something "we're trying to get changed."

"In Toronto the -15 number was chosen in the 1990s and they based that on the weather conditions during which three unhoused people died in 1995, average minimum winter temperatures in Toronto and some severe winter weather conditions," she said.

"A sample size of three is just far too low to make a scientifically grounded decision, especially when there's so much research out there that demonstrates the risks of hypothermia at temperatures of less than 10 degrees or even less than five degrees." 

She pointed to Vancouver's threshold for activating an "extreme weather alert,' which is when "temperatures [are] at or below 0°C, or 'feels like' 0°C with wind chill."

Kroetsch said he has asked staff to amend the threshold policy and hopes "they will act now rather than waiting for a review of the policy at a later date."

At The Hub, Bonner said addressing the threshold was one of several concerns she has, which are "based on what we hear from guests and clients." 

Bonner said "[First] and foremost we want to say that housing is [the] real solution."

She also said there were concerns over shelter bed availability and restrictions, limited options for those outside the downtown core and a lack of "safe use" spaces in shelters.