The municipality is developing plans to help Chatham-Kent's most vulnerable.
In an update Monday night, Dr. April Rietdyk, CK's general manager of community human services, said the municipality is looking into creating a temporary isolation shelter to help get through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The purpose would be to isolate homeless individuals in a safe place where they can still receive appropriate services while protecting them and the community as a whole.
"It's pretty hard when we have the prime minister, the premier and our medical officer of health telling individuals to stay home when you don't have a home to go to. Having a shelter will allow us, in the event that any of our homeless individuals end up testing positive for COVID-19, we will be able to shelter them and isolate them with services they require," she explained.
The idea of a safe space for the homeless is needed now more than ever according to Rietdyk, who said the municipality has seen a significant increase in people experiencing homelessness since the pandemic began.
The latest numbers estimate there are currently 145 homeless individuals known to public health. In February there were 84. Additionally, in March 2020, 53 individuals or families received at least one night of emergency accommodations provided by the municipality compared to 36individuals in March 2019.
"This is largely due to couch surfers," said Rietdyk. "What we typically call in the field the 'hidden homeless.' Individuals where they've gone from family member to family member, they've been sleeping in basements, they've been sleeping on couches. With the concerns around COVID-19 they have been asked to leave, they have been kicked out and they are now on the streets."
Rietdyk added that the situation surrounding COVID-19 has also led to a large dip in the number of people that social services is able to place into permeant housing.
"Landlords are not willing to accept new move-ins to the point they're not even showing units they have available because of some of the concerns," she explained.
Rietdyk said municipal officials are in the process of looking at possible locations and have been speaking with hotels in the area as well as local school boards. They have also examined the possibility of using a municipal facility for the shelter. Rietdyk estimated that the shelter would operate for 18 months.
