With files from Tamara de la Vega
As 2017 wound down, The Table Soup Kitchen Foundation had a difficult decision to make: continue operating its men’s shelter and put its other services at risk or close the shelter — hopefully temporarily — while it works to make the facility sustainable for the future.
In a release this week, The Table indicated that it chose the latter option — sort of. Rather than leave the building empty, the organization will run it as a men’s hostel until the fall with the goal of securing enough funding to make a men’s shelter sustainable from that point on.
“Financial donations from Hostel guests will put us in a better position to be able to ultimately return to a restructured, cost-effective Men’s Shelter model,” noted the release. “Hostel rates will be flexible, and emergency help will be offered based on individual needs.”
But while hostel revenue may contribute to reopening the shelter, The Table will need to find other funding sources to keep it sustainable for the long term.
“We need the hostel to be successful in raising funds in order to return to The Table Men’s Shelter model in the fall,” said The Table’s CEO Heather Berg in a conversation with Doppler. “That is our purpose and primary goal. We are just trying to be able to have the shelter become sustainable. We received some support in November and December but it was not enough to keep the shelter operational right now. Without government support to date, we needed to make a hard decision to temporarily close the shelter.”
The facility will be listed on hostel websites at a rate of $40 a night or $250 per week, paid online via credit card with guests being offered a bed, shower facilities, and access to the games room and kitchen facilities, plus optional laundry facilities, bedding and towels. No food services will be provided yet. Eight beds will be available per the original occupancy permit issued by the Town — Chief Building Official Chris Nagy confirmed that the new model still meets those requirements under the building code.
If men arrive expecting the shelter to still be in operation, Berg says that they have a plan in place to help on a person-by-person basis. “We’ve got people on call to accommodate individuals who are in an emergency situation,” she said. “We have to make sure that we are really clear that we are not offering men’s shelter services because we don’t have the staffing required.”
The hostel will fall under Berg’s responsibility with assistance from volunteers for tasks like cleaning, building maintenance and checking in on hostel guests. Shelter staff have been laid off, although Berg said that the shelter manager would like to continue as a volunteer to help with the building and will remain on the shelter’s steering committee.
As for the men who were staying at the shelter, Berg said, “We did not put anybody out. Men who knew that the shelter was possibly closing didn’t stay, they moved on. We had one guest that has converted to being our first hostel guest. He is working and has simply not found any affordable accommodation.”
Berg said that the organization considered running both the hostel and some shelter services concurrently, but determined that it wouldn’t be feasible after conversations with hostel groups. She said that they would also consider running the men’s hostel again in 2019 from the May long weekend through the beginning of November if it needs more time to secure sustainable funding for the men’s shelter.
We are pretty sad — there have been a lot of tears — that the numbers dictated whether or not we could continue providing the service. The numbers of shelter guests and lives that we have helped at The Table Men’s Shelter certainly indicate that there has been a need and is still a need.
Heather Berg, The Table Soup Kitchen Foundation CEO
She stressed that the decision is a positive one, however, one that’s been met with support from major donors.
“It’s been a difficult transition emotionally but we’ll know this year how sustainable it is,” said Berg. “People have said (last year’s fundraising request for the shelter) is a lot of money to ask the community for, that’s why we really need the District funding to help with that.” She said they will continue fundraising for all of The Table’s six community services and thanked the donors, sponsors, volunteers and staff who have helped the organization since it first launched its free services in 2007.
“We need people’s support, we need it to be successful,” said Berg. “It depends on securing government or District funding, committed donor support for all services, and the success of the hostel.”
Berg will be meeting with the District of Muskoka’s Commissioner of Community Services, Rick Williams, this month.
When Doppler spoke with Williams in December about municipal support for shelters, he said, “There are some larger cities that do participate in funding men’s shelters. They’re not necessarily sustainable in a town the size of Huntsville and also over the years other patterns have developed as far as people using other arrangements in the short-term. We’ve extensively funded people to go into temporary hotels and then back into apartments… we think it’s a better way to move people to independent living.”
He said it is not clear what the annual cost to maintain the men’s shelter would be, but his department does not have “bundles of money nor council approval to give them money.” He added that The Table has been successful with its food security programs, which are supported by the District through annual funding.
I guess the challenge of a shelter in a small community is you have fixed costs of space and staff and sometimes very low utilization and that’s the challenge, really.
Rick Williams, District of Muskoka Commissioner of Community Services
In terms of the difference between the women’s shelter, which the District supports through funding for children’s programs, and the men’s shelter, Williams said family violence is generally the reason women seek shelter with their children, which is generally not the case with the men’s shelter.
“Now, we also make available family units in social housing for domestic violence and we have occasionally had men in those units,” he explained.
On hearing that the men’s shelter was at risk of closing, Williams said he’d like to meet with shelter representatives to find out what their plans might be. “We haven’t had the opportunity to meet with them,” he said. “I look forward to meeting with them and seeing how we can serve the community in the best way.”
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Thank you, Dawn, for writing such an informative article. We encourage readers to continue to share their voices about the need for The Table Men’s Shelter.
Now that the building is there, having it open only in the summer is ludicrous. The day that I am writing this the temperature is minus 25. If you are a homeless man in Huntsville where do you go? To the Summit Centre during the day, which is very generous. Where do you sleep? Perhaps you are a young man who cannot live with your parents,or maybe you are a bit older and have an addiction illness. Where do you sleep? Where do find someone to say “welcome” you can stay here?
Today this might not mean much to you but most people are, at some time, touched by family or friends who need help.
Please, Huntsville, don’t let this happen,
There are other towns near the size of Huntsville, or smaller, that have shelters. You can find this information online at websites like The Homeless Hub. On he page called “Community Profiles” it says what town have shelters. For example, according to 2016 stats, Yellowknife, NWT has just shy of 20,000 people, and four shelters. Huntsville and Muskoka can’t fund one? Mr. William do some research about shelters before you pass any judgement.