According to city staff, 120 people sought shelter from the frigid temperatures on Wednesday at the Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre (CHOCC) — almost twice as many as the previous night.
The mayor and senior city staff hastily opened the emergency warming centre on Tuesday night when 62 people utilized the indoor space.
Despite shining a spotlight on the number of Londoners needing shelter this winter, the temporary warming centre is slated to close on Friday.
It accepts people after the city’s 396 permanent shelter beds, plus 60 temporary spaces opened in response to the Cold Weather Alert, reach capacity.
Earlier this week, eight frontline agencies sent an open letter to council imploring the city to open an overnight warming centre.
The letter read, “In the middle of the night our teams have no solutions except an offer of a blanket, supportive listening, and wellness checks until services resume in the morning.”
Following his State of the City Address, Mayor Josh Morgan told reporters the open letter did not fray relations with the frontline agencies.
“We’re partners on this, right? So sometimes partners get frustrated (and) they write letters. We have a back and forth, but we’re on the same team here,” the mayor explained. “So we’ll have a discussion (and) we’ll talk about resources. We’ll talk about how we want to address this in the future. But no, I don’t always think open letters right before council meetings are the most effective way (to communicate) - but I’m not angry about that.”
Morgan emphasized that the city needs the provincial and federal governments to fund additional shelter beds to address the need.
“The city put forward an emergency response to deal with this cold snap, but it is not enough. We do not have enough resources to do this in the future,” he added. “The people who are there, I met them, I talked to them, I know them, I know they need help. And we’re going to advocate with them and with our community.”
All recreational programming has been cancelled at CHOCC while the emergency measures are in place, which are anticipated to be until Friday at noon.
The facility offers cots, blankets, food and beverages.
Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre is located at 656 Elizabeth Street.
