Not sure if I dare open myself to this but here we go …. I am part of this emergency shelter staff. I am also a person in long term recovery that started my journey out of homelessness through the Queen Street shelter over five years ago. My first year was spent sober at the shelter, horrified. I completely understand the neighborhoods frustration with the lack of “notice”. There was an attempt made by MANY people I know and respect to try and get this off the ground as early as July. I will not speak about Hotel Grace except to say the issues they are facing are not new, many in city government knew about what was happening and yet still dragged their feet to recognize and solve the problem. That is, until around October. The shelter currently opening is full of very qualified staff, who have been involved with serving the homeless community for decades. This is our chance to show how this can be done and done correctly. Both leaving as little a footprint on the neighborhood while providing services very much needed to help the long term problem of homelessness. Queen Street and Hotel Grace have both painted shelters in a poor light, the latter still being better on many topics and that is the stigma we are trying to dismiss. All of that being said - the statements I am hearing from humans at these open meetings is absolutely disgusting and inappropriate. The anger and frustration could be used positively at the polls - to send a message that we want the city to have a dedicated location that all agree with that offers REAL services. NOT at those in need. I am certain that there will be struggles given the circumstances we’ve been dealt, but they will not be anything more than that of any other service or business getting off the ground. For every 1 nasty neighbor spewing venom there is 5 wonderful citizens asking how to help and offering support. And for the location - the city would have to declare a emergency of crisis with homelessness in order for us to use privately owned locations. Something the city is not interested in doing ( not a lawyer, so I don’t have an opinion on this ). They are left with locations owned and operated by 501c3 charities - aka a church. This parish opened up and made a miracle happen and we are eternally grateful to the parish of the Blessed Sacrament. Father and parish committee said yes after 12 other locations said No. My last point is this … the homeless are out there already. They exist in the dark - despite what you may see on your way to work. Evidence proves that the best chance to intercept and redirect chronic homelessness is by instituting a shelter in this format. I hope this is the first of many steps this amazing city that I owe my life to, will make towards properly managing a growing problem.

Edit: thank you kind strangers for my first awards! Fitting it came from a post so close to my heart.