Alayne McGregor
The city closed its respite centre at McNabb Community Centre on October 9, right before Thanksgiving. The centre had offered accessible toilets, showers and meals to more than 300 visitors each week–as well as a cool place, including the centre’s hockey arena, on hot days this summer.
Gotta Go, a community group which campaigns for a network of clean, safe and accessible public toilets in Ottawa, strongly objected to the closure, saying that it would “greatly reduce access to basic sanitation for homeless and precariously housed people in Ottawa.”
At press time, Councillor Jeff Leiper announced that the respite operations would resume at Tom Brown Arena, just outside Centretown, “likely in early November.”
Councillor Catherine McKenney also opposed the McNabb closure. “I did not feel we had the necessary day programs. Staff are working with some of the day programs to extend their hours. My concern really is that we’re going into winter. The number of people unsheltered has doubled since last winter. We’re probably going to see more people in precarious and lost housing through the winter.”
In August, Gotta Go released a report about the McNabb Centre, based on interviews with staff members who played a key role in the day-to-day delivery of services there. The centre, which opened on April 24, was run as a partnership between the city and the harm reduction teams from Somerset West Community Health Centre (SWCHC) and Centretown Community Health Centre, with the two centres providing informal case management, crisis management and harm-reduction services needed by street-involved people.
It ran Monday to Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Located at Percy and Gladstone, it attracted people not only from Centretown but also, increasingly, from the ByWard Market area and Vanier, the report said.
Almost all male, mostly poor or homeless
Those using the centre were primarily either living in poverty, precariously housed (living in rooming houses or couch surfing), or homeless. Ninety to 95 percent were male. They were mostly from 35 to 55 years old, with another large group in their early 20s. There was also an increasing number of families accessing the centre.
The report quoted one client as saying, “It feels amazing to feel clean. People take it for granted, being able to just have a shower, but it makes a big difference.”
But also those who just needed to go
There was also a steady increase in the use of the toilets by community members who were out walking and biking and didn’t have an alternative because many locations were closed.
To get through the winter, McKenney said the city needs at least three respite centres throughout Ottawa. “People are going to need a place to shower, to eat, to be able to use the washroom, to be able to get referrals to housing, health care, harm reduction. This is not going to be the winter to just keep our fingers crossed. So I’m watching this daily and will continue to ensure we are asking what’s needed for people.”
Alternatives provided by local volunteer non-profits
McKenney had asked city staff for a plan to replace the centre’s services. They said other centrally located nonprofit volunteer agencies which might be able to fill in include Centre 454, Centre 507, the Well, St. Luke’s Church and St. Luke’s Table, and St. Joe’s women’s centre, as well as the community health centres. “So there are places where there are some shower services, some places where they have some food services. But, again they’re at capacity right now, especially SWCHC.”
The Gotta Go report concluded that the pandemic has “laid bare the inequalities in access to facilities to meet our basic human needs”, including showers, drinking fountains, and safe, clean and accessible toilets. “COVID-19 has exposed cracks in the system: we need to invest in humans. This lack of basic resources around meeting the hygiene and health needs of all of Ottawa’s citizens is exposing fundamental gaps in our city’s social and health infrastructure.”