Timmins shelter expands with Indigenous services

New shelter beds at Living Space are not only going to help get more people off the streets but, as the Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) puts it, will help clients access services.

The ONWA invested over $13,000 to expand the shelter, of which five will be exclusive to its clients.

The manager of its Timmins branch, Virginia Sutherland, said at the grand opening Wednesday morning that the decision came about when noticing the trouble people have had finding the supports they need in the city. Many closed their offices to in-person visits during the pandemic, she said.

“They walk all over Timmins, in terms of going door-to-door to try and find those services,” Sutherland said.

“We’re coming here, at Living Space, to meet our community members here, so they can access our services.”

The expansion also includes dedicated space for ONWA to perform case management and provide culturally-based programming to clients.

With a majority of the shelter’s clients being Indigenous, First Nations officials in attendance said the move to bring more supports where people are seeking shelter is a critical step towards improving housing insecurity supports for its urban members.

“We need to have these wraparound services, to provide these safe spaces for people to access services,” said Deputy Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, Anna Betty Achneepineskum.

The Grand Chief of the Mushkegowuk Council, Alison Linklater, told guests that several factors can lead people to become homeless.

For Indigenous communities, she said, lack of housing is a large issue, as is the growing affordability crisis. Addictions and mental health challenges are also major concerns, she said, but that it shouldn’t be assumed that they apply to everyone who is homeless.

Linklater said Mushkegowuk Council is creating a social development department, which will allow it to help better collaborate with groups like the ONWA on these issues.

“We’re hoping, with this space that’s provided by ONWA—we’re so greatly appreciative for that—that we’ll continue with more supports,” said Linklater.

Living Space’s executive director, Kate Durst, said the expansion will certainly help get more people into shelter, as well as make more people aware of the in-house services it provides to help get clients on their feet. Things like harm-reduction, mental health and social service supports.

Durst called the ONWA’s funding of the expansion and its partnership with the shelter unique and that it bodes well for future work in the city.

“It’s really showing how the partnerships that are starting to form, in the City of Timmins, are taking those big steps faster,” Durst said..

Sutherland told the dozens of guests at the grand opening that the goal is to end homelessness in the city. Municipalities have been pledging to meet that goal by 2025.

But she said that can only happen when local agencies work together, with its move being just one step.

“These people that are here are people,” Sutherland said.

“If we can come all together to provide that support, I think we can go a long way.”