More Ottawa rec centres, hotels opening to city’s most vulnerable during COVID-19
Posted Apr 20, 2020 08:45:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
South Ottawa's Jim Durrell Recreation Centre, Lowertown's Patro d'Ottawa and the McNabb Recreation Centre in Centretown are a few of the facilities the city plans to use in the coming weeks to help its homeless and at-risk populations deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayor Jim Watson and City Councillor Jenna Sudds, the Chair of the Ottawa's Community and Protective Services Committee, announced on Monday how the city will disburse $11.4-million in federal and provincial funding for social services.
Watson explained that the Jim Durrell Recreation Centre will open the week of April 27, to provide relief for the local men's shelter system. The centre will have capacity for up to 140 men.
In Lowertown, the Shepherds of Good Hope, the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, the Ministry of Health and Ottawa Inner City Health are working to open Patro d'Ottawa as another COVID-19 isolation centre. It will have space for 40 people, and like the Routhier Community Centre, it will be for people in Ottawa's shelter system who have tested positive for the coronavirus, have experienced mild symptoms, or have been incontact with someone who has tested positive.
Meanwhile, the McNabb Community Centre is expected to open in the coming week to provide temporary washroom and shower services for Ottawa's homeless population. The mayor said the city's Human Needs Task Force is continuing to look for locations to put more portable washrooms and showers.
The city is also securing 70 more local hotel rooms for families in need and 50 hotel rooms for single women and youth, to reduce capacity at emergency shelters.
Sudds said there have been just three confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ottawa's shelter system, to date.
The funding announced Monday is in addition to $1.75-million the city already distributed to housing and homelessness partners for priority needs like food supplies and vouchers, added staffing and personal protective equipment.
The city also opened its application process for non-profit organization funding Monday.
Agencies can find application packages at ottawa.ca.
