Hamilton Native Women’s Centre to close emergency shelter this year
Published February 20, 2020 at 7:17 pm
The Hamilton-Wentworth Native Women’s Centre will be shuttering their Mountain View Program that provides 15 emergency shelter beds to women in Hamilton.
The Hamilton-Wentworth Native Women’s Centre will be shuttering their Mountain View Program that provides 15 emergency shelter beds to women in Hamilton.
The news came to light at the Emergency and Communities Services Committee meeting on Thursday (Feb. 20) when Health and Safe Communities General Manager Paul Johnson distributed a letter from the group announcing the change.
Johnson stressed that all other services provided by the Native Women’s Centre are not affected by the change.
“Women who depend on the shelter need to know that nothing changes today,” Johnson said. He said that the proposed date for the closure is June 30 but the organization is flexible during this transition.
Videos
The beds at the shelter are funded by the city and Johnson said that staff are looking for ways to ensure that the beds remain in operation if not at Mountain View.
“We are looking to re-allocate the funding,” he said. These beds have been “absolutely critical” to providing support in the community and Johnson said they will ensure there will be no fewer beds and they will look at the possibilities for increasing capacity if possible.
Councillors found out about the change Thursday just before the meeting commenced so a plan for moving forward is still up in the air.
In the coming weeks, Johnson said staff and the city’s shelter organizations will be meeting to come up with a transition plan and will report back to the committee in late March.
The decision to close down the shelter beds is one the organization says they struggled with for a long time but in order to improve the delivery of their other services, the change was necessary.
insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising