A homeless drop-in shelter run by the Centretown-based Odawa Native Friendship Centre will be closing next month after the city rejected the centre’s latest funding requests.
The Shawenjeagemik Aboriginal Drop-in Centre has been run for 10 years at 510 Rideau Street by the City Centre-based ONFC, providing meals, laundry facilities, computers and temporary shelter for clients. The centre serves up to 100 clients a day and provides 60,000 meals every year.
“The closure of the Drop-In Centre would bring chaos to the homeless community. 510 Rideau is vital to the healing of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people who are at-risk or in transition into homes of their own,” says Morgan Hare, executive director of Shawenjeagemik.
Neal Freeland, president of ONFC, says the centre received about $400,000 in funding last year. But this along with the salaries of the seven full-time employees of the drop-in centre will be cut as of March 31.
The funding cuts are a result of the city’s newly adopted Housing First model. which aims to “rapidly house people who are homeless” according to Aaron Burry, Ottawa’s general manager of community and social services.
Burry says $10.8 million is dedicated to addressing Ottawa’s homelessness but the Federal Homelessness Partnering Strategy requires the city to allocate a minimum of 65 per cent towards the new housing initiative.
Freeland says Odawa and nearby housing agencies such as Shepherds of Good Hope and Salvation Army rely on each other to provide effective resources for the homeless community.
“In order to keep those facilities running, the homeless have to get out and find something to do so that they can clean and maintain the place,” he says, explaining how Centre 510 is where Aboriginal homeless people go during the day to do laundry, share meals and participate in life skill programming, including resume writing and job search workshops.
Freeland says the closing of Odawa will cause a ripple effect through all downtown social services aimed at the homeless.
With an influx of clients and a loss of services in the area, he says there is only one question worth asking.
“What will happen to the homeless? Less resources for the clients means less treatment, less programming, less transitioning into homes,” he says.
Mayor Jim Watson replied to numerous inquiries via Twitter by encouraging community members concerned about the impending closure of the centre to “direct comments to federal government as it’s their funds, not city.”
Burry says the ultimate goal of the city’s 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan “is to increase affordable housing options with supports to end chronic homelessness.”
Although Freeland says he recognizes the need to direct funding towards housing initiatives, he says it’s also important to look at how social services are interconnected. He says he is open to negotiate with the city and emphasizes how Odawa has not given up just yet.
An online petition with more than 1,900 signatures has been directed to Watson and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury asking for help in saving the centre. Odawa is also raising money on its own through an Indiegogo campaign.
“It’s a valuable resource,” says Freeland. “Many homeless people told us their lives have been saved because they’ve been to 510. We want to find a way to keep the services going.”