Ark Aid Mission shifts services from Richmond Row back to Dundas Street

After a difficult year, Ark Aid Mission is getting ready to make a full return to its location at 696 Dundas Street after temporarily running services out of a Richmond Row church.

As of Friday, one of the foremost organizations helping London's most vulnerable will stop serving meals out of First Baptist Church, next to Victoria Park. Operating out of the church was always a temporary arrangement after a fire left the Ark's Dundas Street location badly damaged in May 2022. 

Although Ark Aid will continue to use the kitchen at First Baptist, clients will be provided food and other services at the Old East Village location. 

At the same time, Ark Aid's number of paid staff will drop from 70 to 20 as city funding from the winter response program runs out with the arrival of April. 

Money for 70 Ark Aid-operated resting spaces at First Baptist and another local church will also expire at the end of March. 

Executive director Sarah Campbell said this melting away of funding with the arrival of spring was built into the city's original winter response plan, which was focused on maximizing the number of available shelter spaces through the winter months. 

"Every winter we consider how can we do live-saving services," said Campbell. "And the types of services that we do really are emergency responses: It's a mattress on the ground and a warm cup of soup. And we do it with the most care and grace that we can." 

Bringing Ark Aid clients to First Baptist placed them across the street from the businesses on Richmond Row. It wasn't always an easy co-existence. Some businesses complained of increased vandalism and theft.

A petition was circulated expressing safety concerns. In September, city bylaw enforcement officers said First Baptist didn't have the zoning it needed to house the kind of services Ark Aid was offering. 

"It did attract a lens onto that location that I think was challenging for people who aren't used to seeing the depth of need and the challenges that come with it," said Campbell. "I think a lot of the challenges had been hiding in parking lots and back alleys." 

Eventually a solution was found and Ark Aid was able to operate at First Baptist through the winter but there are still challenges ahead. 

While work to repair fire damage at the Dundas Street location continues, the cost of the restoration has ballooned by $1 million. 

Campbell said Ark Aid is fundraising to help cover that shortfall and finish the addition of new transitional funding for the Dundas Street location by the end of the year. 

Other services to help the unhoused will continue to operate throughout the year. The Centre of Hope will continue to run a drop-in shower and bathroom access service five mornings a week. The Community Hub drop-in space 602 Queens Ave. will stay open and offer shower and laundry service. 

The morning shift at London Coffee House is funded through the United Way and will remain open. Evening hours were covered by the winter response and there's a request in to extend that until the end of June. 

Anne Armstrong is with London Cares, the organization contracted by the city to provide frontline support to those who are chronically unhoused. Armstrong said she is hopeful the city's new approach to address the housing challenges will mean service levels will stay steady through the year, not rise and fall with the seasons.

"It's not enough to meet all the need," said Armstrong of the existing services. "Homelessness has been under resourced for quite a long period of time." 

Holly's House earns reprieve 

Another shelter that was facing change with the arrival of April was Holly's House. 

Funded by the city, Holly's House provides 13 rooms in a downtown hotel for unhoused women or women who are in unsafe living situations. 

As CBC News reported in December the women faced eviction at the end of March because the hotel had plans to increase the room rate. However, CMHA Thames Valley, which helps run the program, said Friday that the hotel management has decided to not increase the room rates for Holly House tenants until at least the end of May.

"Hotels are returning to regular business now and there's lots of tourism, so the cost of hotel rooms has gone up significantly since the pandemic when hotels were looking to find business," said Karna Trentman, from CMHA Thames Valley

Holly's House has been operating for two and a half years, and while Trentman is grateful to the hotel for delaying the rate increase, it means Holly's House still has to find another location. 

"We fully intend to keep the program going, and to support the women who are living there," said Trentman. "If we can't find a space that is more affordable that would increase our ability to support more women then we'll do that. But now we have some time to work with."