The extreme cold weather the last couple of days heightened the need for warming centres and support, which the David Busby Centre’s executive director says seems like a lot of people were able to get.
On Tuesday night, the David Busby Centre had volunteers checking the areas known to have people looking for shelter from the cold.
Executive director Sara Peddle said it was an effort that saw staff get into volunteer mode with an all-hands-on-deck mentality.
“We have our Outreach Team that is out from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., but we kind of have a core group of staff that are taking on a volunteer role that are doing a safety sweep for anyone in the elements that we can get sheltered,” Peddle told BarrieToday.
"It's definitely a crucial thing to do, particularly in those extreme weather conditions," she added.
Over the last couple of nights, during the Environment Canada cold weather warnings, the Busby volunteers have been heading into the downtown area at 10:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., and checking places such as the Collier Street Parkade, the Barrie Transit Terminal on Maple Avenue and a few other spots.
“Fortunately, we already had nine people in our hotel respite beds and two people over at 88 (Mulcaster St.) and they didn’t find anyone else to send over last night,” Peddle said. “They went over to the terminal and at the times they went, there wasn’t anyone there.”
The city opened the downtown bus terminal as a warming centre on Monday and will continue to do so when temperatures are expected to reach minus-30 Celsius.
BarrieToday spoke to a security guard at the terminal on Tuesday who said there were approximately 20 people there overnight.
The Busby Centre building, located at 88 Mulcaster St., opened Tuesday for night services and volunteers who swept the area had left contact information with the terminal security in case anyone stopped by.
The Busby Centre hotel shelter program has also been helping throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to help create a larger space for people to safely seek assistance.
There are currently 101 spaces filled with people looking to get help through the Busby programs, and on top of that there are some rooms for people just looking to get out of the elements and are not quite ready for the programs.
“It helps us to get people out of the cold weather in particular. These have been the coldest days of the season so far and there are surely more to come,” Peddle said. “So the 14 respite beds are there and if someone needs to get a good night’s sleep, so be it.”
The Busby Centre is open from 9 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., then after a quick clean-up and disinfecting, they are open again from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for resources, showers and if people need to stay warm.
“We’re planning on staying open until the need is not there,” Peddle said.
Peddle was asked if the first cold snap of the year and rush to get people off the streets was a success.
“I don’t know how to define success anymore, because we’re dealing with some pretty scary stuff,” Peddle said. “I am not aware of anyone who has passed away, which is always a fear of ours, whether it is overdose or exposure. You could say we’re all thankful for at least that.”
Peddle also said there have been some good news over the last couple of days.
“I think a positive story is the collaboration with police and other community partners the last few days,” she said. “For example, we got a call from the police last night who said, ‘We’ve got a guy, can we bring him over to 88?’ We were able to get him in and off the streets, so the collaboration is the biggest piece for me.”
Peddle says there are some people who would rather not spend the night at one of the shelters, “whether it's because they don’t want to risk getting COVID-19 or whatever it is.”
“We have to appreciate the resiliency of the people who are staying outside right now,” she added. “Whether they’re not coming inside because they don’t want to risk getting COVID-19 or maybe they’ve had a bad experience at a shelter, we have to understand that. Having our hotel programs, 88 Mulcaster, working on our warming centre group working on that and the bus terminal being opened up — it's good to have a lot of tools in our tool belt.”
The Mulcaster Street location for the Busby will be opened overnight until March, where the need will be reassessed.
