Vacant schools may be used to house refugees

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The City of Hamilton is looking at options to help temporarily house refugees when they come to the city. And the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board may be the first to step up to the plate.

At Monday’s board meeting trustee Greg Van Geffin will present a motion to open the city’s vacant schools to act as temporary housing for refugees when they arrive next month.

Currently the board has 7 vacant schools like Hill Park Secondary which closed recently. So there is ample room to provide shelter in the event that the city sees a large influx of refugees. Wesley Urban Ministries is acting as the lead on helping refugees settle and the school board would rely on them to facilitate the actual items needed for daily life such as beds, food, showers, and clothing.

School Board Chair Todd White that they are looking to step up as a means of providing cost effective housing to the organizations who needs them. “So we have facilities that could be low cost options for the City of Hamilton and Wesley Urban Ministries, so rather than exclude our facilities we figured that, as good neighbours and citizens in the City of Hamilton let’s offer the resources that we have available to us that may end up providing opportunity as well as save money down the road.”

This is supposed to be only temporary housing but Todd White says that the time frame is open ended as long as they can keep this a cost neutral undertaking. The motion will be brought forward on Monday and White says that he hopes their board members get behind this.