Rising costs force more people to rely on community services for basic necessities, like warmth
This time of year, when the temperatures dip below the freezing mark, most residents seek warmth indoors, but hundreds of people in the region without a place to call home are forced to brave the frigid elements.
It becomes a matter of survival, which is why the Community Church in Orillia is opening its doors for the second consecutive year to offer a warm place for those with no other option.
"The city has donated through Lighthouse $16,500 this year to help with warming centres," said the city's new mayor, Don McIsaac.
According to the city, during its pilot project last year, the warming centre was open for 34 days and was visited 243 times.
The warming centre is only open when temperatures in Orillia fall below -15C or -20C with windchill.
Linda Goodall, The Lighthouses executive director, says they also receive an additional $16,500 from the county to help run the program with other partners.
"It does cost money to run it safely. That's what I wanted to stress because we need qualified individuals to be there to support those experiencing homelessness," said Goodall.
She says the money allows them to hire five additional employees at a time when the city is seeing an increase in the number of people in need.
Goodall explained that several factors, including the rising cost of living, forced many people to the streets, who now rely on community services for basic necessities.
"It is more serious than ever before," said Goodall. "So we are trying to do what we can. It takes a community to be able to support every one of our community members."
The Lighthouse currently provides 50 beds, and its supportive housing has 20. The warming centre offers an additional 16.
Environment Canada told CTV News on Wednesday that although snow is in the forecast this week, the temperatures are not expected to drop significantly.
However, meteorologist Gerald Cheng said the temperatures could dive to -15 and below in Barrie and Orillia next week.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Auston Matthews to miss second straight playoff game with Toronto Maple Leafs facing elimination
Auston Matthews will miss the Maple Leafs' must-win Game 6 against the Boston Bruins.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.