Ottawa secures 400 additional beds to help homeless

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The city plans on adding an additional 400 shelter beds by spring to help alleviate the housing crisis.

The move comes as the city is preparing for another cold snap — low temperatures of -16 C to -23 C between Sunday and Wednesday — and while the mourning continues for a man who froze to death on the Centretown streets on Jan. 6.

The additional spots have been made available through the YMCA Transitional Housing Program, the St. Joseph Transitional Housing Program and the Queen Street Transitional Housing Program for single adults.

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With 300 asylum seekers and newcomers currently using temporary shelter facilities at the Bernard Grandmaitre Arena, and at emergency overflow centres on Heron Road and Lanark Avenue, hundreds of other homeless have been left with nowhere to go.

The plan is to move the asylum seekers to the new areas within the next few weeks and months, opening the doors of the Bernard Grandmaitre, Heron Road and Lanark Avenue to those desperately seeking shelter.

Heron Road and Bernard Grandmaitre will be used for the homeless until “overflow capacity is secured,” according to a city memo. The city is working to extend its lease at the Lanark Road facility, a federal government property. The lease is due to expire at the end of February.

The city is also negotiating with the federal government to renovate existing vacant buildings into permanent housing. A $15 million plan to build a tent-like structure near the Nepean Sportsplex to house refugee claimants — financed by the federal government — is also in the planning stages.

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