As homelessness continues to impact communities across Canada, Mayor John Taylor is proud of the way the Newmarket community has rallied to support Inn From the Cold's All Inn! campaign.
With an initial goal of raising $2.5-million to support the building of a new shelter on Yonge Street, the campaign has surpassed that goal and is now aiming to hit its $3-million stretch goal.
“It’s very rewarding in the role of mayor to see your community come together,” said Taylor, who is the campaign chair leading a team of volunteer community and business leaders. “Some communities are resisting shelters and providing the needed services to support those experiencing homelessness, so to see our community do exactly the opposite and want to do more to ensure everyone in our community lives in dignity and receives the support they need to live a better life, it makes you very proud.”
The Yonge Street location has been established and approved through an MZO with half of the land being purchased by Inn From the Cold, the non-profit that works with the community to help the homeless, and the other half of the land being donated by the Town of Newmarket.
While there’s no specific date set, Taylor said the hope is to have the shelter open in less than two years.
According to Inn From the Cold, in York Region, 400 people are homeless, 52 per cent of renter households are spending 30 per cent or more on housing (highest in the GTHA), one per cent is the community’s rental vacancy rate, and 11 years is how long individuals need to wait for affordable housing with the waitlist topping 17,000.
As chair of Housing York, Taylor believes projects like this are "extremely important" both in Newmarket and throughout the region.
“Housing York has a responsibility for housing and homelessness in York Region,” he said. “We’ve seen a dramatic increase in people experiencing homelessness in the region and in Newmarket the past couple of years during COVID and post-COVID.”
Taylor said the All Inn! campaign is an opportunity for the community to support Inn From the Cold in its efforts to provide critical and needed housing services in Newmarket.
“To be blunt, we need to step up our game and do more,” he said. “People are living rough on our streets, and you’re really seeing this across North America. Encampments are becoming a greater and greater challenge. The public is becoming more vocal about wanting to see their community provide assistance to people who are struggling.”
The new shelter on Yonge will have 18 transitional housing units to provide a longer term solution with daily support allowing those experiencing homelessness to stay from six months to a year.
“Over the last decade, housing and homelessness experts have realized that providing shelter space with a meal and a cot is compassionate and helpful, but it is not a solution,” Taylor explained. “The general model is turning more toward a housing first model, and in our case, to really step up our game in the area of transitional housing.”
To provide services that help with job skills, addictions and mental health support, Taylor said you need transitional housing.
“When you’ve got people experiencing homelessness, they’re very transient and when people are moving like that, you can’t provide them the support they need to truly transition from crisis to stability,” he said. “If you put those experiencing homelessness into transitional housing, it gives six months to a year to work with individuals and support them in a meaningful way.”
Along with the transitional units, the 16,000-square-foot space will have a dormitory-style emergency shelter with room for 26 people, case work/interview rooms and classrooms for education and training, a dining hall, a multi-purpose space and quiet room with computers and library resources, and an outdoor garden and recreation space.
Learn more and donate to the All Inn! campaign here.
