Overnight warming centre filling gap in Pembroke

People who don't have a warm place to rest during cold Ottawa Valley nights now have an option near the Pembroke, Ont., waterfront.

Non-profit service provider The Grind Pembrokehas set up padded reclining chairs, televisions and heated bathrooms in trailers at the farmers' market near Victoria and Lake streets.

"In Renfrew County, we don't have a shelter. The only shelters areNorth Bay and Ottawa,"saidJerry Novack, The Grind's executive director, in an interview on CBC Radio'sOttawa Morningon Tuesday.

"There was a real need for us to have some place ofrefuge during these cold months."

The warming centreopened Dec. 1with space for 25 people. Four localmunicipalities, plus donations, have covered the $220,000 cost of running it from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. nightly until the end of April.

Volunteers also play a part, especially those from thePembroke & Area Community Taskforce.

Ottawa Morning6:25Pembroke gets a warming centre

Pembroke now has a warming centre in a construction trailer for people in the area who need refuge overnight. Jerry Novack is the executive director of The Grind Pembroke one of the agencies helping to run the warming centre.

It's not technically a shelterbecause it can't meet all the requirements that come with that label, Novack said. For the same reason, it has no cots for sleeping.

Still, it's a step up from last winter when The Grind offered its coffee shopas anovernight shelter.

When the warming centre closes for the day, a co-ordinator comes to help people looking for services. The Grind'shub is about three blockssouth on Victoria Street.

Homelessness growing in county

Novacksaid seven to 10 people use the space on a typical night, but he expects more with overnight temperaturesregularlyreaching20 C this week.

Novack said the space has hosted a total of more than 200 people, about half of them men and half women.

"For us at The Grindwe do know the majorityof them because we'd be providing them a meal that day and making sure we're connecting them but we do have some that are travelling through that willstop in and then we help them get to their destination," he said.

According to the county,55 individuals, couples and families were in need of shelter around the beginning of November, compared to 43 the previous year.

The numberof people who can't afford a home, particularly after absorbing a financial shock such as a break-up or eviction, has beengrowing in the county and beyondbecause of the disruption caused byCOVID-19 pandemicand the more recent spike in the cost of living.

More than half of the people found in Renfrew County's survey were around Pembroke, single, living with a mental illness and/or hadn't had a home for more than six months.

Nearly 40 per cent of respondents said they were Indigenous, more than four times theproportion of Indigenous people among thecounty's general population.

Pembroke is a hub of about 16,600 peoplein the county, which has a population of 106,400 spread over a large area ranging from Arnprior to Barry's Bay to near Mattawa.