Women's shelter in Sudbury 'bursting at seams' for past 6 months

Every night for the past six months, the women's shelter on Cedar Street in Greater Sudbury has been filled to capacity.

Cedar Place is a 22-bed emergency shelter for women and children. It's operated by the Salvation Army, which also has four beds at a local motel for single fathers and their children needing emergency shelter.

Clients can stay for as long as two to three months, but they must be actively looking for housing.

Cedar Place has been at its full capacity since May, according to executive director Cindy Bertolo. She adds they've turned away 150 to 180 people this year. 

"If you could just imagine a mother coming to the door with a child and saying [to them] 'We're full.'"

"If it was 12-o'clock midnight would we put them on our couch? Most likely, but it's fire and safety and risk issues. So we have to be careful with that," she added.

"While we stay at capacity we're unable to help someone that comes to the door."

No room at the inn

When a potential client is seeking emergency housing, yet Cedar Place is unable to provide a bed due to current volume, Bertolo says the staff try to direct the individual to other housing supports in Sudbury, as well as out-of town shelters.

"We recommend the person calls us the following morning because we mostly know in the morning if someone doesn't return, and then we can give them a bed once it's cleaned and set up for them," she said.

She says they can't predict what their capacity will be like next month, next week or tomorrow.

"We're an emergency shelter so we could have three people leave today and two people come tonight or tomorrow morning. We just don't know from one day to the next." 

"Bursting at the seams"

"Capacity is just bursting at the seams," Bertolo said.

She believes the reason for the increase in emergency housing need is because immigrants are relocating to Sudbury in hopes of getting housing faster here than in larger urban centres like Toronto or Montreal.

"We have a large amount of people that are relocating to our community from some of the bigger centres," she said. "Montreal, Hamilton and Toronto are three of the big ones. A lot of it is immigration, but there are people relocating to Sudbury for employment or better housing services."

"It's really important that we offer people hope, and that we're here and we're glad that we're here."

There are some early conversations within the  Salvation Army about finding a new accessible space for Cedar Place, before accessibility legislation is required in 2025. Bertolo has a vision for what she would like to see in that future building.

"In a perfect world we would have mental health beds and apartments rather than putting people in a motel system, so we can support them and maybe have an emergency shelter on the main floor."