Temporary emergency shelter to open for 3 months in Dryden, Ont.

An emergency overnight shelter opening this month in the small city of Dryden, Ont., will address a pressing problem by givingpeople a safe place to stay during the winter.

The shelter, which will run three nights a week, will be operated by Dryden Full Gospel Church.

"For about a year, for myself personally, it's been on my heart as a church to reach out to those that are experiencing homelessness and poverty in our community,"said Nikolas Amodeo, lead pastor at the church.

Amodeo said that after conversations with numerous community partners, and the Kenora District Services Board, they began working on a plan for the three-month pilot project, expected to launch mid-January.

The shelter will hopefully have between 10 and 12 beds, he said, noting the number of people they can host will be limited by COVID-19 protocols.

Hope for permanent shelter

The service is badly needed, said Henry Wall, CAO of the Kenora District Services Board, which is providing operational funding for the shelter, but so are morelong-term solutions.

"We do know that this community, that the community of Dryden, is in need of a permanent shelter," Wall said.

"It is our hope that through this start,we can work with both the province and the federal government to really get some resources to support this community and make sure that we move from pilot to actually having a permanent program."

Wall added that work is also ongoing to try to address the lack of affordable and supportive housing in the city.Wall said he also hopes there is a growing awareness of how acute the problem is in smaller communities like Dryden.

"I think this belief that homelessness is just something that large urban centres experienceis wrong. Here we have a community in northern Ontario that is really struggling with this, in a very real and in a significant way."

The shelter will be staffed by employees with the help of volunteersand will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Wall said those times were chosen because they're when the greatest gaps in services exist.

While it will serve an immediate need, Amodeostressed he also hopes the pilot project will be just a first step, and the shelter will serve as a gateway to other supports and services.

"I think of the shelter as sort of a landing point almost like an on-ramp," he said.

"There's an initial entry point they can get at least safe and secure for the night, have a roof over their head and warm up. And then, as those relationships build we'll start to see, 'okay, what is it you need to help you live a thriving life, right?' So that's my hope."