Shelter shortage for women

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The freezing temperatures can make it very dangerous for the homeless to be on the streets. Many are struggling to find a roof over their heads tonight, especially for homeless women. The sad truth is that likely all women’s shelters in Hamilton will be over capacity tonight.

The Good Shepherd centre says they will work with the women they can’t take in and try to find them an alternate. The Good Shepherd says they are forced to turn away around 100 women every month. The men’s shelter doesn’t have that problem.

“We would only turn somebody away if that individual poses a threat to either staff or to the other residents in the facility. Unfortunately our resources don’t necessarily reach the demand.”

A city survey found 504 homeless people in Hamilton last year. Nearly 75% were men but experts say those numbers will never be accurate. St. Patrick’s church in Hamilton says they’ve considered letting homeless people inside the church on nights like tonight but say it’s just not safe or feasible.

“The first thing is not having the resources to hire extra staff to be here at night. Certainly mental illness here in the area is very high and also there is a lot of drug addiction.”

CHCH reached out to the mayors office to find out what the city is doing to tackle the shelter shortage in Hamilton but we were told the mayor was not available.