We recently opened the doors to our newly renovated Carole Anne’s Place overnight drop in centre for women. This vital program began as a temporary drop in centre in 2016, providing overnight beds during the four coldest months of the year. We named the program after Sister Carole Anne, who started Out of the Cold in Hamilton, and the first donor who helped us launch the program.
At that time, we opened Carole Anne’s Place in our seniors’ centre, rolling out mats each night and clearing them away every morning so the space would be available for our daytime seniors’ programs. We really thought Carole Anne’s Place would be a temporary emergency response. But, year after year, this program continued to grow, starting with 10 women daily to now serving up to 60 women each day.
Carole Anne’s Place has been the first rung of the housing ladder for women and non-binary individuals experiencing homelessness in Hamilton. It is designed to be as low-barrier as possible, meaning many individuals who access Carole Anne’s Place literally have nowhere else to go.
Giving Carole Anne’s Place a permanent home was necessary because the housing crisis in Hamilton intensified during the pandemic. The great needs in our community, particularly for women and gender diverse people, were laid bare in very stark and very heartbreaking ways. YWCA Hamilton responded to this need by making the decision to close our pool space and creating a beautiful, purpose built space for this program, thanks to investments from the City of Hamilton, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
Those staying with us now have their own locked room for the night, with a bed, dimmer lights and two outlets - offering a solution to the issue of keeping a cell phone charged, critical for women’s safety and daily survival. Having a safe space is a key piece of providing dignity and comfort to the folks staying here with us and a luxury for those who are unhoused.
People staying at Carole Anne’s Place also have access to a spacious, bright, and fully accessible washroom, new showers complete with secure lockers to store their belongings, and free laundry facilities. YWCA Hamilton believes that everyone deserves access to safe space that is not only practical, but also inviting and thoughtful.It is in collaboration with partner organizations, however, that Carole Anne’s Place has become so much more than just a safe place to sleep.
Since day one, we have been partnered in harm reduction work and addiction counselling with St. Joseph Hospital’s Womankind program, whose staff works with us every night. Low barrier healthcare is provided by the Shelter Health Network onsite to offer treatment planning for chronic health issues, including wound care, diagnosis, prescriptions, and preventative healthcare. Midwifery care is available for any reproductive care needs, including pregnancy tests, abortion navigation, pelvic exams, and access to emergency contraception.
We are also very proud to house our Safer Use Space in our new location. This ground breaking program is the second gender specific safe consumption site in Canada, offering a safe space for those who use drugs, while being monitored by YWCA Hamilton harm reduction workers and Keeping Six peer staff. Since opening, we have had zero deaths and only non-service calls to first responders.
60 women, who would otherwise regularly have to resort to a place on the street, now experience the safety, dignity and care in a trusted space with familiar staff. This has led to less traumatizing outcomes, more opportunity to seek stability in housing and health and fewer resources needed from first responders of all kinds: timely wound care can and does curb a hospital stay for sepsis, safer-use supports regularly revert drug poisonings.
I would like to extend a huge thanks to all of you in Ward 2, our friends and community partners. Carole Anne’s Place is only a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to safe shelter in Hamilton. We know that there is so much more that needs to be done to ensure that everyone has access to safe, affordable housing, but YWCA is here for the long haul. We are committed to the hard work of creating housing solutions, both here in Ward 2, and in the city as a whole.