Drop-in centre that offers showers, laundry to homeless people runs out of funding

A drop-in centre that has helped more than 1,000 homeless people this winter with laundry, showers and bathroom facilities will run out of funding at the end of March and shut its doors. 

The service, run out of 602 Queens Ave. at Adelaide Street, was funded through the winter to provide a warm place for people to go, but that funding, allocated as part of a winter response to homelessness, has not been renewed, said Anne Armstrong, head of London Cares, one of four agencies that use the building as a hub and office. 

"It's a desperately needed service. Bathrooms, laundry and showers are things that folks on the street and in encampments really miss and needed," Armstrong told CBC News. "We were funded on a temporary basis to open that service and we served 1,021 unique individuals in the past year."

The drop-in centre gives people a chance to come inside, hang out and warm up while resting. Indigenous agencies and health-care providers also visit, and the drop-in centre is open for couples, people with pets and those who have been banned from other London services. 

In December alone: 

• 277 showers were taken. 
• 146 loads of laundry done. 
• 23 pets came in with their owners
• 173 people were turned away because the drop-in centre was full. 

The café, which serves two meals a day and is run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, served 7,446 meals in December.

"It's a hopping place," Armstrong said.

The café will continue to operate past March because it has a different funding stream. 

It costs $400,000 to run the drop-in service for six months. That price includes paying a security guard on the site, brought in to ensure those who work in the building and those visiting feel safe, Armstrong said. 

"Because of the desperation that has increased on the streets over the past couple of years, security is becoming essential to operate a service like this, especially with the numbers we're seeing."

Last April, when the drop-in centre closed at the end of winter, a lot of people converged on the property outside, with 50 or 60 milling around every day, and the security guard was hired. 

While the drop-in centre closing will be felt by the people who visit every day, eventually, Londoners will be impacted, because people who usually go there will have nowhere to go, Armstrong said. The need will be particularly pronounced when the Ark Aid Mission's overnight shelter a block away closes at the end of May, when it runs out of funding, she added.