Staff shortage behind Sudbury warming centre challenges, executive director says

A warming centre in downtown Sudbury, set up to help the core's homeless population during frigid winter temperatures, is experiencing a major staff shortage, putting operation of the facility at risk.

Julie Gorman, executive director of the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth (SACY), said finding people to work the weekend and evening shifts at 199 Larch has been difficult in recent months.

"We've noticed that the majority of our sector of trained individuals are caretakers in their home lives, as well as their work lives," Gorman said. "So a lot of them are unable to maintain these frontline requirements."

The shortage was most evident around Christmas – "our worst month" Gorman said. Already trying to fill gaps, remaining staff logged a lot of overtime, leading to increased burn-out from the long challenges.

"What would happen is in less than 24 hours, someone would have to give notice because their family member has to isolate being a close contact, or the school had to shut down," Gorman said.

"So now a parent has to be home and in less than 24 hours, we would have to fill five to ten shifts for that one person."

It's a small pool of workers at the warming centre, Gorman said, 30 trained professionals plus another 10 or 15 casuals who can plug holes when needed. The space at 199 Larch can accommodate 32 people indoors, the city's web site says. 

According to Gorman, the warming centre sees approximately 45 unique homeless people per shift, adding up to approximately 400 visits per day.  

Gorman added that they're now turning to community partners to make sure the centre can perform the task at hand.

"We've been very grateful for the turnout we've seen from partners," she said. "A lot of homeless services come together multiple times a week in meetings to discuss staffing needs and other supports."

That includes planning for the potential of another lockdown. Until then, Gorman said they're focused on making sure the centre runs as smoothly as possible, at least until the contract to operate the warming centre ends in spring.

"We also are talking to outreach workers to see if they can help walk clients to one of the alternative shelter spaces within our community just across the street, or down the block," Gorman said. "We also have other community partners who are bringing in some supplies like snacks or harm reduction supplies for the people who need them."

The city's web site says some of the pressure could be easing on shelters.

According to the Homelessness Data page, there is total capacity of 65 shelter beds and 42 indoor warming spaces. On the evening of January 15, 2022, the total shelter beds were at 77 per cent capacity.