• Isolation & Recovery Centres were established to provide private isolation spaces to people with symptoms, awaiting COVID-19 test results, or recovering from the illness with health care supports provided virtually or on site

• Some harm reduction policies were established for shelter users staying in the Isolation & Recovery Centres, including encouraging proper storage and disposal of paraphernalia, rather than discharge

Gaps

Some challenges remain with the current shelter services amidst the pandemic:

• The shelters have a limited number of washrooms that are shared by several clients, increasing challenges for scheduling the use of common bathrooms and increasing the number of clients that are in contact with each other or the same spaces

• The Salvation Army provides both shelter and housing with supports out of the same facility, and the shared bathrooms on individual floors makes it difficult to provide isolation space within the facility

• Because of the size of the Welcome Centre shelter, it is difficult for clients to physically distance, in particular when they are outside their rooms, but also when they are in their rooms, but not sleeping. Clients are generally asked to stay out of common spaces at the Welcome Centre at this time

• The rooms used to provide additional sleeping spaces in the existing shelters may not be available or financially feasible as long-term solutions

• Some shelters have hired additional staff in response to the pandemic and are paying them a higher wage than pre-pandemic as a result of the provincially funded ‘pandemic pay’, but this has only been committed by the province on a short-term basis, and some shelters anticipate challenges retaining staff if ‘pandemic pay’ ends

• People who access the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) may be ineligible to stay at City funded shelters because they are over the City’s asset/income limit and may pay for a hotel/motel to meet their short-term accommodation needs. However, assets can be quickly depleted by staying in a hotel/motel and then cannot be used for first and last month’s rent to help them re-gain housing.

• While the City is providing substantial funding to the Downtown Mission to assist with operating the shelter and remain open during the day amidst the pandemic, it does not have an agreement with the Downtown Mission outlining expectations for eligibility, housing supports, etc.

• Shelters may struggle to cover COVID-19 related costs if the City does not receive additional COVID-specific funding allocation from the province or federal government or shelters may struggle with cash flow issues while awaiting the flow of funding

• Families with children staying in motel/hotel rooms have added stressors on their mental wellness when most of the City is closed and children are at the motel/hotel day and night. For some, it also creates additional challenges looking for housing