ShelterCare Vision to Continue at New Location

For Immediate Release

As part of a comprehensive Waterloo Region plan to address the challenge of homelessness in our community, House of Friendship is pleased to announce it will continue to provide its ShelterCare vision – integrated health care and shelter services – at a new location: the Tower at the Inn of Waterloo (475 King St. N.)

This is the third site in the community that has been offered up as interim accommodation for Region-funded service providers, as announced by the Region in a media release last week. The other two locations include:

• YWCA, operating out of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Kitchener.
• The Working Centre, operating out of the Waterloo Cooperative Residence’s Hammar Building on University Avenue West in Waterloo.

For the past six months, House of Friendship’s Shelter program has operated out of the Radisson Hotel in Kitchener, which graciously provided the space needed to safely house more than 100 individuals experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While this more comprehensive approach to Shelter was a vision underway before COVID-19 began (www.sheltercare.ca), the pandemic made it an instant necessity to keep those who are homeless, and the entire community, safe.

The ShelterCare model provided program participants with:

• a safe and warm place to stay 24/7;
• onsite health care to address their physical, addiction and mental health needs;
• supports to address the factors that resulted in homelessness (like childhood trauma);
• staff to provide the tools and resources they need to find and maintain permanent housing.

The new model proved successful in other ways:

• No positive COVID-19 cases within the ShelterCare program;
• Overdose rates are down by over 50% despite increasing the number of individuals served from 51 to more than 100;
• 75% reduction in Emergency Medical Service visits; and
• More than 30 men housed over the past six months, with none returning to Shelter.

“This new way of shelter has proved so successful that there’s no going back,” said Jessica Bondy, Housing Services Director at House of Friendship. “By providing shelter space with improved privacy, dignity, and a range of supports, we are finding that folks are getting healthier and more ready than ever before to find a permanent place to call home. As part of the Region’s plan to address homelessness, our ShelterCare model is making a difference.”

“We’re incredibly grateful for community partners like the Radisson, and now the Inn of Waterloo, who are going above and beyond to help those in our community who are facing homelessness,” said John Neufeld, Executive Director of House of Friendship. “They are willing to step up and be part of the solution, and we can’t thank them enough for that.”

House of Friendship is reaching out to neighbours of the Inn of Waterloo, delivering a neighbourhood letter, and frequently asked questions (below) to help address any concerns that might arise.

The move to the new location will take place in mid-October. The Inn of Waterloo & Conference Centre is providing space in the Tower portion of its building only.  The hotel will continue to welcome its regular guests as part of its normal business operations, in a completely separate section of the hotel.

For more information, contact Gail Martin, Marketing & Communications Specialist, at gailm@houseoffriendship.org.