London council changes rules for winter shelter access
CBC
London City Council voted Tuesday to change the rules around when emergency warming spaces for people who are homeless can open in the winter.
After lengthy debates that were observed by dozens of people in the public gallery, council agreed the spaces at Boyle Community Centre, the overnight winter warming centre, could open when the following conditions are met:
Previously, both conditions had to occur simultaneously.
Despite the Community and Protective Services Committee agreeing that extreme weather alerts issued by Environment Canada should be added to the list of conditions, the full council disagreed.
“The City of Winnipeg was under an extreme weather alert yesterday for fog, and I don't think that's the intention of the warming centres being open,” Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis said.
“This would give staff time to go back, look at this new [alert] system that Environment Canada has rolled out, [and] come back to us and say there are five or six of these alerts … that Council may want to consider as an exception," Lewis said.
Some councillors expressed concerns that waiting to implement rules around weather alerts could cost lives.
In the end, Council voted to ask city staff to report back to council in the future with “options to further align with Environment Canada extreme weather alerts.”
City staff previously estimated that each activation of the Boyle warming centre costs up to $14,500 a night.
Councillors also voted unanimously to approve $250,000 to allow agencies, such as Ark Aid Mission and London Cares, to open additional warming spaces at their discretion when the temperature reaches -5 C.
They also voted to allocate $290,000 to reduce the activation requirements for the 60 emergency warming spaces at the Boyle Memorial Community Centre. Both initiatives would be funded through the city's Social Services Reserve Fund.
A push to shorten the City's contracts to fund and support social services was also voted down Tuesday. The motion by Coun. Susan Stevenson would have seen the current two-year contract terms reduced to one-year terms.
Councillors in favour of the reduction argued that the withdrawal of federal funding for such programs, combined with uncertainty from the province, meant a shorter term should be necessary.
The measure failed 7-to-8, with opposing councillors arguing for job security for workers in the sector, among other points.
WARNING: This story discusses child sexual abuse material and contains graphic details of alleged sexual assault
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