Another blow to Waterloo Region’s Out of the Cold program as another church has decided not to participate in the program. Out of the Cold provides food and temporary shelter to the homeless during the winter.
Trinity United Church has been part of the program for 15 years, but have decided it’s time for a change.
“We believe that God is asking us to move into a different direction which is focusing really on the homelessness to housing strategy that the region has put out,” says Rev. Tiina Cote with Trinity United Church.
Cote says they have been assured by the region that there are enough beds in emergency shelters to accommodate everyone.
However, not all of the homeless use the emergency shelters, according to Cathie Stewart Savage, who runs the Out of the Cold site on Fridays at First United Church.
“We are optimistic that the people that we’re serving might seek help from the shelters, but our experience has been the people who come to us have usually have rejected that option and that’s why they’re with us. What will change their mind, I don’t know,” said Savage.
There will now be three nights with no Out of the Cold program running; Trinity United used to run Mondays, Ray of Hope announced they were cutting Tuesdays earlier this month, and St. John’s Lutheran Church has cancelled its Thursday night site.
“Out of the Cold has been under a great deal of strain for the last number of years. I have spoken at region council almost every year at budget time saying that Out of the Cold is under strain, and that it’s not sustainable to keep relying on the churches,” Savage said.
At the moment Out of the Cold will only have coverage on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays this winter. Regional councillor Jane Mitchell says that the region is looking into more evening outreach workers to help the issue.
