KENORA — A community group for the unhoused in this city has paused operations as autumn grows colder.
“The CommUNITY space will be closed during October,” Kenora Moving Forward member Marlene Elder said Tuesday. “And that could extend longer.
“We sent out a notice to community partners letting them know that people will lose some access to washrooms, phones and meals that we’ve been providing.”
Elder said the grassroots coalition provided warm drop-in space at the Ne-Chee Friendship Centre on Second Street South for the city’s homeless population for the past year. Before that, they operated at Jubilee Church of God on First Street South.
Now, with funding hard to find and Kenora Moving Forward’s one full-time worker taking a break, provision of services is untenable, she said.
“The issue is primarily one of funding and, you know, one of capacity,” she explained.
“We’re just having to be realistic about what we can provide right now.”
Individuals in the volunteer coalition are finding it rather difficult to move forward at the moment without even one staff member, she said.
“Some of us are retired. Some of us are still working. Some of us have small businesses. So we’re not an organization,” she said.
“We have provided honorariums to peer support workers to help and develop their skills,” she continued.
“But, you know, the burden was on (the staff member). And when we don’t have our own space, it makes it really challenging.”
Kenora Moving Forward members saw a need for more services to Kenora’s homeless population, she said.
“So we’ve been operating a few evenings a week and weekends, and providing an evening meal. And it’s that washroom, you know, it’s computer access, phone access and just a place for people to be,” she explained.
“That connection is important, but it is difficult to provide without our own space and without some more secure funding.”
Kenora Moving Forward gave the unhoused a warm and welcoming place for the four hours between 4 p.m. when the Kenora Fellowship Centre closes for the day and when the 44-bed Kenora Emergency Shelter starts accepting people for overnight stays, Fellowship Centre executive director Yvonne Bullbear said.
“Now there’s a lot of people out in the elements for four hours,” she added.
Bullbear said funding is also an ongoing struggle for the Fellowship Centre, which offers a warm safe place during daytime and serves a warm lunch to 80 to 100-plus individuals seven days a week.
“We’re thankful every day we can open our doors to them and let them come in and have a nice warm cup of coffee,” she said.
Elder said the Kenora Moving Forward coalition is “continuing to reach out to community partners” and trying to secure funding to keep the work going.
She expressed hope that a solution will be clear after a KMF meeting on Friday.
“Because, you know, it’s the worst time of the year, really, to not have a place for people to go.”
