New rules have been put in place for the low-barrier men’s shelter at the Community Resource Centre in an effort to curb unused cots, an influx of people hanging around outside overnight and vandalism to property.
Beginning this week, guests at the shelter will only be allowed to go outside for a 20-minute break every two hours. They will also have to sign out and sign back in with security each time they go outside, and guests who are not back within 20 minutes will lose their cot for the night.
Canadian Mental Health Association Algoma (CMHA Algoma) has been operating the low-barrier men’s shelter since June 2023, when the shelter was temporarily situated at Verdi Hall. Chief executive officer Annette Katajamaki says the new rules at the shelter in the Community Resource Centre were implemented in part to reduce the number of cots being used sporadically — or in some instances, not at all — throughout the night.
“They get their bed, they stash their stuff in the lockers, and then they turn around and go back out. Some of them never come back until the morning to get their stuff,” she told SooToday. “Some of them will be out for hours on end and then come back — meanwhile, we’re turning away men who are looking for shelter and don’t have access, because the beds, technically, are taken.”
In addition to the new guidelines, only registered guests of the 22-bed low-barrier shelter and transitional housing residents will be permitted on Community Resource Centre property going forward. Katajamaki says that shelter guests hanging around outside are attracting other people to the property — some nights, there have been upwards of 50 to 80 people hanging around outside the downtown building — including people “who are actually dealing drugs” on site.
CMHA Algoma has also noticed a “marked increase” in women on the property overnight, adds Katajamaki, making the excessive loitering a health and safety issue. “That’s another reason we have to crack down,” she said. “That becomes a health and safety issue when our staff are forced to monitor both the inside and the outside.”
Staff at the shelter are not only performing life-saving measures such as CPR, naloxone and narcan “almost every night,” Katajamaki says, but they’re also assuming those same responsibilities for random people who hang out on the property as well.
“They’re burning out really quickly,” she said. “Emergency services are being called a lot more.”
Katajamaki says CMHA Algoma is seeing more damage being done to Community Resource Centre property with the influx of people on the property all hours of the night: There have been reports of shrubs on fire and graffiti. Pieces of the eight-foot perimeter fence surrounding the property have been ripped out. The Community Wellness Bus has also been the target of vandalism and attempted break-ins.
CMHA has been looking at implementing new shelter rules for some time now. Katajamaki says the decision to go ahead with them was made in concert with the District of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board, which pays CMHA Algoma to operate the low-barrier men’s shelter, about two weeks ago. Guests at the shelter were made aware of the changes around that same time, with some community partners being notified of the changes last week.
“It wasn’t like it was sprung on them. It’s definitely been out there for them,” Katajamaki said.
The decision was informed in part by some people in the neighbourhood, who have taken issue with dozens of people outside of the Community Resource Centre making them feel unsafe and keeping them up at night.
“These folks are desperate, and we understand that,” said Katajamaki. “But we also have to balance it out for what’s the best outcome for the most people.”