Royal City Mission to open daytime drop-in space in downtown Guelph next week

Royal City Mission will open a daytime drop-in space in downtown Guelph next week to serve people who are experiencing homelessness.

The city announced on Thursday that the new space will open Tuesday and the site will be open six days a week from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Royal City Mission is regularly open Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the grant covers extended hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Last week, city councillors voted to offer a $120,000 grant to a local organization that could open a drop-in space as soon as possible to serve the needs of people during the winter months. Royal City Mission will receive $76,496 of that grant fund to provide the expanded services.

The services being extended at Royal City Mission on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays using the grant funding will run until Feb. 28.

The city thanked Royal City Mission for “offering these valuable services and coordinating with community partners.”

The new drop-in space comes after some confusion over the service being offered in the downtown core in recent weeks.

The city announced last month that a daytime drop-in space was scheduled to open on Jan. 12.

Stepping Stone is an organization that helps people and families in the city who are homeless. They had won the contract to open the space in August, but announced just days before the space was set to open that Stepping Stone was unable to meet the deadline to open.

That's because Stepping Stone is currently undergoing renovations to add another floor to their building on Gordon Street and construction is not expected to be done until spring.

The organization had reached out to Royal City Mission, which also helps people experiencing homelessness in the city, to host the daytime drop-in until April when renovations are expected to be complete.

But Royal City Mission executive director Kevin Coghill said in a statement at the time they were unable to reach a "formal agreement" with Stepping Stone.

That led to city councillors meeting last week to determine next steps. That’s when they voted to offer the emergency grant funding for a drop-in space for six weeks while also still working with Stepping Stone to open a drop-in program starting on March 1.

Despite the new space opening next week, the city says other not-for-profits or grassroots organizations can still apply for funding “to provide enhanced daytime services” and the city says they “encourage organizations to apply as soon as possible.”