Could Sault Ste. Marie be joining the likes of Sudbury and Timmins when it comes to having a city-run warming facility in the community?
Soo city council is looking into it, but some local agencies say it's not needed.
Anne Penney is the Executive Director of Pauline’s Place, a shelter for women and youth located on Queen Street East in Sault Ste. Marie. It is an emergency home for people who have nowhere to go or are looking to get out of the elements.
"Here, we are not at max capacity." said Penney.
From what she sees, the people who need to get out of the cold are already well-taken care of.
"Do I think there is a demand for warming stations? No, no I don't. I think there are more than enough in the city and I do know that you call anywhere and you can find where people can go to be warm and eat, as I said." said the Executive Director.
Another one of those places is St. Vincent Place, where Nat Cicchelli is the executive director. Cicchelli says the men's shelter is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and he also doesn't see the need for a city-run warming station.
"There's enough infrastructure in place to be able to house anyone that is homeless, that happens to be here in the community, that doesn’t' have a place to stay in a cold night." said Cicchelli.
He adds that if the city wanted to use his facility during the day as a warming station, he wouldn't say no. He would just need some help covering the cost.
"It requires supervision. It requires dollars to be able to do that and that would have to be in place before we would be able to allow that here at St. Vincent Place.” said Cicchelli.
Penney believes there are already enough warming stations open during the day to accommodate the community.
City staff says they still need to do research on the issue.
