Osborne Village winter centre for homeless in jeopardy

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This article was published 31/03/2019 (2696 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Organizers of a warming centre for Winnipeg’s homeless fear tonight could be its last at Augustine United Church.

The River Avenue church donates its space to the Just a Warm Sleep program, which is operated by charitable group 1JustCity. Sunday night is this season’s last scheduled night for Just a Warm Sleep, and 1JustCity executive director Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud says the program’s 25 current beds have been full “almost every night all winter.”

The program operates from Jan. 1 to March 31. It began in 2017.

A renovation project at Augustine United Church is in jeopardy. Blaikie Whitecloud said it’s due in part to delays in receiving expected federal funding. Blaikie Whitecloud is asking Winnipeggers to donate to an online fundraiser for the project and add the comment “Augustine.” As of Sunday afternoon, the campaign had raised $925 of its $50,000 goal.

If the project isn’t completed by next winter, “we don’t open, or we have to find somewhere else,” said Blaikie Whitecloud.

“I really believe that this development project will go,” she said.

“I think that the space is needed and the building is needed, but I think that the challenge is just that we need the word to get out there so people can start to contribute, and help Augustine United Church continue to… give their building to charity partners.”

The project would allow Just a WarmSsleep to host more people per night, and offer those guests some basic comforts.

“We’ll be able to offer showers and laundry services,” Blaikie Whitecloud said. “We have overnight staff that sit in the space, but overnight they’ll be able to actually do peoples’ laundry for them, so people will get to wake up, shower, put on clean clothes.”

Having a warm place to sleep can change someone’s day, or even their life, she added.

“We have a lot of seniors who sleep at Just a Warm Sleep, we have a lot of different people who sleep at Just a Warm Sleep. And many of them are working full-time, or kids who just left (foster care), and all of them deserve a hub, and in this instance it’s a church building, to feel welcomed and loved and get what they need.”