Concerns for homeless

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The city issuing a cold weather alert has shelters are opening their doors to the city’s most vunerable, the homeless. The already overworked facilities won’t be turning anyone away looking for a place to rest. Shelters see a spike in visitors during the winter months but Hamilton’s booming housing market could be to blame.

The kitchen at Wesley Urban Ministries has been pumping out meals all day long. Many of the centre’s clients have been in-and-out trying to get a break from mother nature, shelters across the city say they are operating well over capacity.

Empty beds at the Good Sheppard are far and few between. While they won’t be turning away anyone during a cold alert, the centre says they’ve been running nearly capacity all year round. They say the crisis isn’t really the weather, but the lack of affordable housing. “When rents begin to rise, when the availability of safe affordable housing shrinks or in fact you have situations where people with less financial means are being pushed out of their existing housing we are headed for a real crisis.” Katherine Kalinowski from the Good Shepherd.

2015 was a record breaking year for the area’s housing market, 16 000 homes were sold in Hamilton and Burlington and there is no shortage of new construction. But the booming market has left a gap. 5 600 Hamiltonians are waiting for affordable housing. That number has grown steadily over the last 5 years.

The Good Shepherd says many of the city’s homeless are on that same waiting list and it could be a decade before they find a suitable home.