A look inside Hamilton’s shelters overwhelmed with COVID-19 outbreaks

Shelters in Hamilton are struggling with a rise in COVID-19 cases making the entire system vulnerable.

Some have even been forced to halt admissions in an effort to curb the spread of the highly-contagious Omicron variant while dealing with a high rate of positive cases.

Bronston and Mark are two residents currently isolating after testing positive at the Good Shepherd’s overflow shelter on Main St.

They say the facility isn’t equipped to handle the number of people positive with the virus.

“We are told to isolate, yet there are five people in here,” Mark said in a recorded video while giving a tour of the area where the two men are currently isolating. “There are no doors on them. It’s just open.”

Dr. Kerry Beal from the Shelter Health Network says COVID-19 guidance from health officials simply cannot apply to many shelters dealing with outbreak situations.

“There’s been a move to have people isolate in place. That probably works very nicely amongst a family of eight that has their own home,” said Beal. “There are some shelters who are doing it extremely well because they have the space to do it. They have the set up to do it, although staff is a problem. There are other shelters that are just totally not equipped.”

Beal says the entire shelter system has been hit hard by COVID-19. She added it would be easier to list the shelters not currently in an outbreak.

Katherine Kalinowski from the Good Shepherd says it can be difficult to find an open bed because some shelters have been forced to stop intake due to staffing levels and the risk of infection. She says it is causing immense stress to people in vulnerable situations.

“I often ask people to think about their own anxieties or the anxieties of their own friends and families are experiencing with this pandemic. Then consider those anxieties overlayed without a place to spend the night, a place to call home,” said Kalinowski.

Hamilton has 536 beds in shelters across the city but most are regularly at capacity.

While there are some isolation spaces within the shelter system for those positive with COVID-19, there are simply more people with the virus than spaces available.