PELASS emergency stays motel program provides a place for homeless to get out of the cold

Adam Prudhomme
Editor

With no local warming centre option this winter, Prince Edward Lennox and Addington Social Services (PELASS) has relied on its emergency shelter stays program to assist those without a secure bed at night.

Working with local motels, PELASS provides a private room with access to a warm bed and full washroom facilities to those in need. While staying in the motel, PELASS staff work with individuals to connect them to programs to put them on the path to long-term, sustainable housing.

“We’ve had the motel program for quite a few years actually,” said Lynn Chenier, director of social services with PELASS. “We tend to call it emergency stays. When someone reaches out to our office generally we’ll work with them to find family, friends (to find a place to stay), if they’re not from this area if they’re actually wanting to get back to the area that they’re from (PELASS will assist with getting them back to their hometown). If none of those are a viable option then we look at the emergency stay program. Someone can be in contact with the office directly or if it’s after hours Interval House in Napanee is the 24/7 contact for after hours.”

The motel program is seen as a temporary option while staff works to find a long-term solution.

“Our case workers want to ensure that every person that doesn’t have a place to stay can get a place to stay,” says Pat McLean, manager of social services at PELASS. “They go above and beyond, they work hard to find something that’s a little more supportive and a little more sustainable for an individual that is homeless. They work with the individual and they work with community partners.”

“The motel stay can work in tandem while also trying to explore something a little more long-term,” added McLean.

While finding shelter for the night is important, McLean says their main objective is to solve the root cause, whether it’s issues relating to mental health, addictions or other reasons.

“Each person is unique,” said McLean. “The only common dominator for all these individuals is that they have no place to sleep. Each individual brings other barriers or other areas where they need support. That’s why that community out reach to other community agencies is so important. Individuals often times may find themselves homeless or in jeopardy of a place to stay because of some of the other issues that they’re trying to deal with.”

Though its been around longer, the emergency stay motel program generally isn’t as well known in the community as the warming centre, which ran for the last two winters inside the Napanee Area Community Health Centre. Led by the Morningstar Mission and a team of volunteers, the warming centre operated on winter nights to give people a place to get in from the cold, socialize and get something to eat. In late fall of last year it was announced the centre wouldn’t operate this winter due to COVID-19. That led some in the community to believe there were no options for the homeless to get in from the cold. Greater Napanee council addressed that misconception at a meeting last month, requesting PELASS to provide some information as to what is available to those in need.

“It’s a tender subject with people,” Greater Napanee mayor Marg Isbester told the Beaver following the meeting. “It’s very emotional. I understand it but people will only understand it if they know all the facts. There is no one level of government or people. This is something that’s on all of us to how do we solve homelessness and it’s not just a roof over everybody’s head. It’s all the services that go along with it.”

Isbester agreed a long-term solution has to be more than just a temporary place to sleep.

“Having a roof over their head sometimes isn’t the most important thing,” said Isbester. “Getting them the services to help them keep a roof over their head is the most important. So many government cuts, and I’m not going to blame any level of government, we all need to cut, but (the warming centre) was something that was very expensive to maintain, very labour intense, not probably giving a government the stats of success or the results that they wanted. I think unfortunately we looked at taking too many things away before we got everything fixed. When I say we, I mean all of us. I am still not in favour of just a warming centre. I think that if we look at Home Base Housing in Kingston and a few others, there are some good examples of what can be done that involve everything.”

Isbester noted a homeless shelter in Kingston reported an operating cost of $150,000 a year and that included just one staff member, no beds and very little food. Noting the obvious population difference, Isbester said the example points to just how expensive a shelter can be.

The mayor supported a motion at council that called for town staff to come back to council in June and start discussing long-term homelessness solutions. Community groups such as the Mission would be invited to take part in the discussion, as would PELASS.

“I think we need to sit down as a group and figure this out,” said Isbester. “The group would include all the levels of government, all the mental health and addictions and certainly the Mission and the good people from the faith based that volunteer when the Mission was doing it there. I think people just kind of think you just snap your fingers and boom, it’s there.”

A long-term shelter would require trained staff, security and possibly nurses or PSWs-something Isbester said is easier said than done.

“We need people that are educated and trained in crisis intervention and prevention because many of these people, through no fault of their own, have problems that are above and beyond what a normal volunteer without training could do,” said Isbester. “We also have to make sure that those people that are working with the homeless, that we’re protecting the homeless from them too with police checks.”

Chenier says she too has heard calls from the public for a shelter, but she doesn’t think it’s the answer either.
“I don’t know if an emergency shelter solution is really a great option,” said Chenier. “I think we’re able to manage homelessness pretty well in Lennox and Addington with the numbers that we have through the use of the emergency shelter in conjunction with our case workers to help them find more long-term stable, safe, affordable housing.”

In the meantime, the town will work with the county and other agencies to develop a strategy to deal with the issue. Isbester says she’s all for dialogue with the community, but spreading misinformation on social media doesn’t solve anything.

“It doesn’t help for anybody, including social media to say there’s not doing this, they’re not doing that,” said Isbester. “You can’t just throw them in a train station or an empty building or a library.”
Any individual or service provider requiring assistance with emergency shelter due to homelessness can contact PELASS Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 1-866-354-0957. After 4:30 p.m. or on weekends and holidays they can contact L&A Interval House at 1-800-667-1010 or the Picton Salvation Army at 613-921-0425.

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