OTTAWA The city of Ottawa says all parties are working tirelessly to find a new temporary location for an emergency shelter for women, after the lease for its current location at the University of Ottawa was cut short by a month. Cornerstone Housing for Women says it has three weeks to find an interim site for its emergency shelter, or more than 100 vulnerable residents will lose their shelter. The shelter opened its site at the University of Ottawa in December 2020 after the city asked the organization to expand its capacity to accommodate a surge in demand for women and gender-diverse individuals experiencing homelessness for the winter. The city arranged for space at the university to ensure there was enough space for physical distancing to be maintained.
Posted: Feb 10, 2021 3:09 PM ET | Last Updated: February 10
A client stands outside of Shepherds of Good Hope, one of six Ottawa shelters that s dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak. (Jean Delisle/CBC)
The head of one of Ottawa s largest shelters is calling for people who live and work in the shelter system to be prioritized for vaccination as COVID-19 cases continue to spread.
Deirdre Freiheit, president and CEO of the Shepherds of Good Hope, said they ve been dealing with outbreaks at the King Edward Avenue shelter since January.
They re not alone: there are six active shelter outbreaks, according to Ottawa Public Health s COVID-19 dashboard, and there have been 198 cases and one resident death since early January.