New overnight warming centre set to open in Kitchener on Friday

A new overnight warming space is set to open in Kitchener on Friday.

It's located at 298 Lawrence Ave. in Kitchener. The Region of Waterloo is opening it in partnership with Thresholds Supports, a non-profit mental health and housing provider. The region says it will be open daily from 7:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.

The non-profit organization will be in charge of running and staffing the new centre. It has received funding to help run the overnight warming centre for three months.

Eric Philip, CEO of Thresholds Supports, says they will open Friday night with space for 20 people. They plan to expand capacity from there after getting a better understanding of what the community needs.

"We'd have to get a better look at how those individuals are existing in the space," he said when asked about the timeline to expand to more people.

"It's a hard question to answer without understanding what the dynamics are from day-to-day. Sometimes one person can feel like five if their energy is bigger and other times people just stick to themselves."

He says Thresholds Supports offered up its space when it saw the region was looking for a space to open a warming centre for people who need to escape freezing temperatures.

"It's wild that the [overnight emergency warming centre] service doesn't exist [before this project]," he said. "It just speaks to like the lack of resources that exist in general in communities across Ontario to provide these type of services and the the necessity for more sheltered housing space."

Philip says there will be a variety of essential services available for people hoping to stay out of the cold, including inflatable mats, food, bathrooms and a warm place to just sit and relax.

More warm spaces needed: Advocates

A point-in-time count done in October 2024 found more than 2,300 people in the community are homeless — a number that has doubled in three years.

Peter Sweeney, the commissioner of community services at the Region of Waterloo, says they know there aren't enough beds to help everyone.

"We are in a situation where we have more people who are homeless than we have supports for, which is why we see a rise in encampments in the last number of years," he said.

"Until we have the proper amount of affordable and transitional housing, we are going to struggle with homelessness in this community for a long time."

Regan Sunshine Brusse is a housing advocate and a member of the Unsheltered Campaign, which is a collection of advocates in Waterloo region with a shared focus on the rights of people experiencing homelessness.

Brusse says the new overnight emergency centre is a good step forward.

"Up until this point, there has been no space overnight in order to seek relief from the elements when they become too harsh. With the lack of current shelter space, there's a large volume of people that need services like this and doors that are open to provide relief from the elements when it gets too cold outside during the nighttime hours," Brusse said.

But she says the location of the new warming center is not accessible to all — and more similar spaces need to open in other parts of the region.

"We need options in our townships in Waterloo [region], the City of Waterloo and in Cambridge, where people can go during the nighttime hours to access relief," she said.

"As a single location, it's not accessible to everyone, of course, but realistically, I have no qualms about the location in as much as it's a space that's being made available to those people in our community who need to be able to access it."

Philip says the region is working on opening a similar overnight warming centre in Cambridge. There is no timeline yet for when that might open.