The Hamilton YWCA is in the midst of a $500,000 renovation at Carole Anne’s Place, an overnight drop-in for unsheltered women and non-binary individuals in the city.
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Construction for the new space at the building on 75 MacNab Street is taking place in the area that once housed the facility’s pool, which was closed permanently during the covid pandemic and filled. Construction started last December.
Hamilton YWCA CEO Medora Uppal says Carole Anne’s Place originally began in 2016 as a pilot project that operated as an overflow shelter during the winter months but has since grown to become a permanent program.
“We had no permanent home for Carole Anne’s Place, meaning that we would lose at the end of March, we would lose 22 plus beds that we have opened up and so we couldn’t see those folks back on the street every night, with nowhere to go,” Uppal said.
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The program provides meals, access to showers, health care, and safe drug-use space and has the potential to be life-saving for those who use it.
Uppal says, “I see so many women and gender diverse people having a safe night, out of the cold, able to gather, sleep, eat, you know, have a dignified experience and knowing that they’re off the street, and not in dangers way, makes me feel really good. I’m so hopeful and excited about the potential of what’s going to happen here.”
Once completed the space will have space for around 25 private rooms, a kitchen, a common space area, private showers, and a washroom. In addition to a safe consumption and injection site.
Currently, at the facility, the beds provided at the drop-in centre are in a common space, with very little privacy.
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“Allowing people to have private space at night to sleep makes people feel safer and that’s really important. The safe use component is so important. People don’t have to die from drug poisonings. They actually can remain healthy and alive and yes, you’re using drugs, and whatever the implications are of that, they’re not dying on the street,” Uppal said.
In addition to half a million dollars from the city, the YWCA also received funding from the federal government and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Construction of the updated facility is expected to be completed by the end of May.
