More shelter beds coming at Interval House of Hamilton

“It was a crisis walk-in, which happens quite a bit,” said IHOH executive director Sue Taylor of the incident about four weeks ago.

But the west Mountain shelter that night was over its 26-bed capacity with as many as 34 women and children staying there.

“It was very late at night and the staff worked really hard to find her space anywhere in the (women’s shelter) system including out-of-town and, at that point, there was just nothing available,” Taylor recalled.

The woman and her two children were given blankets and they ended up sleeping on the floor in a meeting room.

A day or two later, Taylor said they were able to find them a bed in the system.

Taylor and the staff at IHOH are hoping to see fewer situations like this thanks to $220,000 in funding in two grants from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

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• Dec 31, 1969
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• Dec 31, 1969
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One recently awarded grant of $149,700 will see a common room turned into bedrooms.

“We are going to work with some really creative contractors and create two bedrooms with washrooms,” Taylor said. “This will add another five or six beds into the system.”

Taylor said the new rooms should be in place in about a year’s time.

A $71,200 Trillium grant from last year enabled the shelter to upgrade their security system, install new security doors and do some landscaping work.

While the new bedrooms will increase their capacity to 36 beds, Taylor noted they are only funded for 26 of them.

The province pays for 22 beds and the city covers four more.

Taylor said the money covers a variety of costs including staffing, utilities, water, food, children’s lunches, laundry, diapers, baby formula and support programs. The six new unfunded beds will drive up their costs and she’s not sure where the money will be coming from.

“I think we’re going to be looking at our community and our sponsors to help us,” said Taylor, who added they have not received any significant increase in their base funding for 15 years.

David Hlady, part-time accountant at IHOH, noted for the 2022-23 fiscal year they received $1.6 million from the province and $384,000 from the city with only some very minor increases over the years.

IHOH has also received $25,000 from the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) and $5,000 from the Canadian Italian Business Professional Association.

“LIUNA has a long-standing commitment to Interval House,” said Victoria Mancinelli, director of public relations, marketing and strategic partnerships at LIUNA, who presented both cheques to IHOH at a Nov. 24 event at the shelter. “(The money) is going to be used for support services, whatever Sue feels are the urgent needs of the shelter.”

Last year the IHOH building was renamed Victoria and Friends Women’s Shelter in recognition of the support from LiUNA and Mancinelli.