7 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,O ctober 8,2020 w aterloochronicle.ca Catherine Fife MPP Waterloo Community Office 100 Regina St. S., Unit 200 Waterloo, ON N2J 4P9 519-725-3477 CFife-CO@ndp.on.ca I hope you have a safe and healthy Thanksgiving This weekend, let's reflect on all we have to be grateful for, even in these challenging times. Please remember, we all benefit when we follow public health guidelines. councillor Elizabeth Clarke, who said the hotel is being paid for the rooms used. Furniture has been re- moved from the lobby to cre- ate office space and unnec- essary items have been re- moved from guest rooms where individuals other- wise unable to self-isolate will be able to find interim housing, 24-7, in a safe and contained space. The tower portion of the hotel is separate and can be contained from the other parts of the hotel, so the ar- rangement shouldn't affect regular guests or the hotel's pool and fitness members, Hales noted. "COVID has been pretty rough on everybody, and we saw that there was a need," she said. The "ShelterCare vision" is an integrated shelter and health-care program that's been piloted by the House of Friendship for the past six months at the Radisson Ho- tel in Kitchener, which pro- vided space for about 100 in- dividuals experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. That agreement has since come to an end. According to House of Friendship executive direc- tor John Neufeld, the care model is proving to be a suc- cess. There's been 75-per-cent reduction in emergency medical service visits, and overdose rates are down by more than 50 per cent, even though the number of peo- ple accommodated doubled compared to the overnight shelter on Charles Street, where it moved from in March. The comprehensive care model ultimately allows health-care providers to find homeless people the help really they need, Neu- feld said. "We can provide a bed and food, but that doesn't help move things along. Their mental health gets worse, their addictions get worse and they don't move on with their lives," Neufeld said. "We have an opportunity to continue this innovative way to continue providing shelter that we've never re- ally done in our community and we haven't really done anywhere in most places across Canada." More than 30 men have been housed over the past six months, with none re- turning to the shelter. There have been no positive CO- VID-19 cases within the ShelterCare program. The Waterloo Inn tower is the third site announced to provide interim accom- modation with region-fund- ed service providers. The other two locations include the Waterloo co-operative Residence's Hammar Build- ing on University Avenue West, which will be over- seen by The Working Centre for interim housing for up to 80 men and women. St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Kitchener will provide over- night sleeping space for about 30 single men and will be operated by the YWCA. Neufeld said there's been extensive outreach in the lo- cal community. "The challenge at Radis- son was we moved in over- night less than 24 hours due to COVID and everything and didn't have chance to en- gage the neighbourhood about challenges," he said. "That was something we learned from and are doing it here. As soon as we signed the agreement, in less than 24 hours we were walking through the neighbourhood with 385 letters, going to sur- rounding businesses, en- gaging." Neufeld said he has re- ceived a handful of emails that are respectful, with good questions. "As a result of shifting to this new model in March, there has not been a single case of COVID-19 in our shel- ter program. Rather, we've seen tremendous results in- cluding individuals experi- encing greatly improved health (and therefore more ready to address their addic- tion and trauma) and the highest number of individu- als housed in years," the let- ter to the neighbourhood reads. Anyone with questions or concerns can call Gail Martin, House of Friend- ship communications, at 519-742-8327, ext. 132, or email GailM@houseof- friendship.org. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: The Region of Waterloo has expanded its shelter program for the next 12 months relying primarily on additional COVID-fo- cused federal and provincial funding and recently an- nounced three agreements with service providers. NEWS Continued from page 1 'COVID HAS BEEN PRETTY ROUGH ON EVERYBODY,' SAYS HOTEL OPERATIONS MANAGER The "ShelterCare vision" is an integrated shelter and health-care program that's been piloted by the House of Friendship for the past six months at the Radisson Hotel in Kitchener. Houseoffriendship.org Photo