Ark Aid opens 30 beds while London’s ‘cold weather response’ is still in the works

With the colder winter months ahead, Ark Aid Street Mission in London, Ont., has opened its first 30 overnight shelter beds in the city.

The initial beds will operate through the help and generosity of volunteers and donors, according to executive director Sarah Campbell, as the city has yet to approve its cold weather response.

“We’re offering a life-saving, short-term intervention. It is not a home, it is not even shelter. It is an opportunity to come in and get warm, and to potentially address some of those health risks and concerns before they become dire. And so that’s all part of the motivation and doing the work.

She told Global News that cold nights have already arrived in the city and that immediate action is needed to help hundreds of Londoners living on the streets.

“We know that this issue in our city has gotten worse and worse, and so we’ve been planning to participate in this (cold weather response) since July,” she said. “As part of our training and being ready for the winter, we had planned to open (Monday), so even though the reports are just out now, we’re moving forward with our plan.”

Earlier this year, the city’s strategic priorities and policy committee received a report related to temporary drop-in spaces set to be included as part of the community cold weather response.

An updated staff report is set to go before the committee on Tuesday.

“Even though the reports are just out now, we’re moving forward with our plan,” Campbell said.

She highlighted Ark Aid’s commitment to the implementation of the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community Response that has been underway since November 2022, which was created by more than 200 people from about 70 organizations across the region.

“We’ve been a part of the health and homelessness process since last year when it really became apparent that we needed to link the issues of health and housing,” Campbell said.

“We’re really supportive of the hubs plan and all the various components, like supporting housing, that have come out of those talks. However, we understood that until those things are up and functioning, we would need to continue the work that we had started in the winter beds planning.”

With plans to provide up to 120 overnight beds, Campbell also noted a significant increase in the public request for their services, especially in the realm of food insecurity for people both housed and unhoused.

“We know that food security is a precursor that happens before people become homeless,” Campbell said. People lose housing by having to make the “tough choices” of deciding between food and paying rent, she explained.

Ark Aid has also been providing meals to those living in encampments.

“Our outreach teams pick up 120 meal packages, which contain three meals, 2,000 calories or more, each day and are then bringing them to people who are living unhoused and in tents,” Campbell said.

This past weekend, Ark Aid opened its newly renovated kitchen that will work to prepare more meals in support of the encampment depots as well as their longstanding soup kitchen service.

However, Campbell stressed that heading into the winter months, the organization is noticing that “people are bunkering down in those encampments because there’s a lack of places to go.”

FILE-An encampment area at Queens Park in London, Ont., 2020. Scott Monich / 980 CFPL

“We know that there’s a high need in our community, (and) we know that the numbers of individuals living unsheltered and unhoused are higher than ever before,” she said.

With regards to the city’s cold weather response, which is still in the works, Campbell hopes that Ark Aid can secure more staff and volunteers, as well as needed funding.

“We cannot do this cold weather response, certainly not with the scope or the number of beds, without city funding,” she said. “It is always expensive to operate 24/7 services and so those dollars are very important for staffing and for the basic needs. But our community also has a role to play.

“Not only do we look to the community to help us with volunteers, and donations, but also for their support for the work that we do,” Campbell continued. “Watching people struggle and living on the streets, there is no good place to see people living in these kinds of margins of society. … So, I asked for the compassion and care of Londoners to help us in doing this work and help us do it better by joining us and doing it together.”

If the city’s cold weather response is approved during city council’s strategic priorities and policy committee meeting, council will consider finalizing the plan on Nov. 28.