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PRESBYTERIAN
SUMMER 2024
presbyterian.ca
Connection
Out Of the Cold: A Georgetown Story
By the Rev. Steve Boose, Knox Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, Ont.
Out of the Cold started in down- town Toronto in 1987 after a homeless person known to stu- dents at St. Michael’s Collegiate School froze to death on the school’s steps one cold night the year before. The priests and nuns who ran the school reached out to local places of worship with a plan to have them open their doors to the homeless in the winter months. Six churches and one synagogue ended up pick- ing a particular night of the week when volunteers from the vari- ous congregations would serve warm meals and then allow a cer- tain number to come back in the evening for a safe sleeping space, with breakfast served before the guests left in the morning. The model eventually spread to over a hundred North American cities.
Alas, in the 2010’s, many over- night programs ceased when the opioid epidemic reared its head, leading to violence and aggres- sion overrunning host sites, and resulting in volunteers refusing to stay overnight to watch over the guests.
Nevertheless, Halton Hills had (and still has) no official shelter program of any kind—all shelters in Halton Region are in Oakville or Burlington, more than 30 km south. Neither was there any kind of “refuge program,” such as Out of the Cold. When the idea of be- ing a host site for an Out of the Cold program was presented to
the congregation at Knox in early 2019, $2,000 was set aside as a budget. We investigated how to make such a program a reality. By the end of 2019, the vestiges of a plan had formed, with support being offered from Halton Region, and as 2020 commenced, it was realized that something may well be possible by the end of 2020.
But then, of course, the world shut down in 2020. Two years later, the plan was revived. Rather than asking seven local congre- gations (including Knox) to be host sites for one night per week, it was envisioned that Knox, with its location beside the library, would be the single site and the volunteers would just come there. A question was, would it be one night per week? Two or three? Only on the coldest nights, or every night possible?
In September and October of 2022, word circulated that this program was being envisioned, and though it would be mostly administered by Knox folks, volunteers from throughout the community would determine how it operated. Many interested individuals came to information sessions. Some put their names forward to become part of a Steering Team that would oversee various aspects of the program. Local churches and commu- nity groups made donations of funds or goods to help get things started. The Presbyterian Church in Canada was approached about distributing a grant from the New & Renewing Ministry Fund, and $10,000 was given for the first
year’s operations. Six cots were purchased, and food was donated to help the teams provide meals and snacks to the guests.
The first two guests of the pro- gram were local people who had been chronically unhoused for some time—one with addiction issues and the other dealing with mental illness. It was quickly dis- covered that the Operations Manu- al was a great starting place for the program’s thinking, but as had happened in so many instances throughout history, “The Plan” did not survive contact with reality. Adjustments were made. Copious notes were taken. The Steering Team’s members, many of whom volunteered for various shifts, sent emails back and forth with their observations and sugges- tions. And the program evolved.
Due to user groups being in the building several nights per week, the program cannot be open until 8:30 in the evening. The first shift (the Evening Team), a minimum of two volunteers, arrives around 8:00 p.m., tasked with setting up cots for as many guests as may arrive on a given night, prepar- ing some food for them, and en- gaging them in conversation. At 11:00, they are relieved by the Overnight Team that will be in the building until 6:00 a.m. Much of the Overnight Team’s responsibil- ities are ensuring that the guests can sleep peacefully. At 6:00, the Morning Team arrives, tasked with cooking breakfast, putting away the cots as the guests rise and shine, cleaning up the kitchen and eating area, and getting eve- ryone out of the building by 8:00.
In 2022–23, the program was open for 97 of a possible 126 nights between December 5 and April 8 (Easter Sunday). Twelve different individuals stayed over- night at least once; one guest was present for 95 of those nights, sometimes as the only guest. Of the other guests, two were refugee claimants, while another was a refugee from Ukraine who had been brought to Canada two
weeks earlier without any real support; her sponsor had cut her loose so the police brought her to Knox, and in the morning her only request was a ride to the airport, where she presumably returned to Ukraine—the war zone was preferable to what she had found in Canada.
For 2023, it was decided to open two weeks earlier, stretching the season to a full 140 nights. As Christmas approached, however, the number of guests expanded from two or three to five, six, even eight per night. It was learned that a local church with West African roots was taking in a dozen or so West African refugee claimants and hosting them as they pro- cessed their Canadian residency papers. Refugee claimants were flooding into Pearson Airpor t in Toronto and introduced into the al- ready overloaded shelter system, and as those shelters filled up, claimants were getting pushed fur- ther and further out to the fringes of the Greater Toronto Area.
But Out of the Cold Georgetown had to hold the line at eight as its maximum. Only twice were that many guests in the building; of- ten in January and February there were six, occasionally seven. Strangely, having more regular guests made things easier to manage, as they tended to police each other, telling each other that they had this warm place to sleep because of the volunteers, and if they disrespected the volunteers, they would find the doors closed more often. Morning Teams en- joyed cooking for more than one or two. Meals became very convivial affairs. An additional
effort was added to serve more complete meals on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, which was very much appreciated by the guests. The program continues to evolve. Flipping through the log- book shows that 34 individuals stayed for at least one night, with an average of four to five guests per night.
Plans for next year are already in motion. Grants have been ap- plied for. A bank account has been established to track the in- creased money flowing in and out of the program’s hands, because precise accounting is required to track the spending. Training in mental health First Aid has already been established, while First Aid training and Food Handler Safety courses are also being set up.
Most important, the mandate of the program was carried out: get these people to tomorrow. On 121 out of a possible 141 nights this season, guests have got- ten to “tomorrow” after a night in the church. Job interviews are tomorrow. Rehab or detox starts tomorrow. Social workers or community resource helpers can be contacted tomorrow, but it’s so much easier to work with them if a good night’s sleep is had tonight. This was the vision. This was the challenge that was presented five years ago when the congregation had been told that I had been speaking with someone who had recently spent the night in a bank vestibule trying to warm up their feet with a hair dryer. Do something, they had said. Make something happen. What do we do, Lord, I prayed? “This...” had been the answer.