Return of mobile outreach service in Thunder Bay, Ont., speaks to high demand for support

Sarah Law · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 10, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

As Brendan Carlin puts it, "sandwiches and h2o support radical alive."

But Shelter House's Street Outreach Services (SOS) programme successful Thunder Bay, Ont., is astir overmuch much than that.

The programme was discontinued successful 2022 owed to a deficiency of funding. Since then, the effects of its nonaccomplishment person lingered successful the northwestern Ontario city, particularly arsenic homelessness has continued to rise.

Bringing the work backmost has been a cardinal precedence for assemblage partners since earlier Carlin became enforcement manager of Shelter House.

Last week, the enactment celebrated the program's return, acknowledgment to backing from the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board, Lakehead Social Planning Council, and the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre.

"It's been a large response," said Carlin. "All of [our partners] are beauteous overmuch saying, 'we're truthful gladsome it's backmost due to the fact that we person clients who are, for immoderate reason, not capable to beryllium successful structure oregon they request help' — and truthful we're gladsome to beryllium capable to supply this programme for them."

SOS provides mobile outreach, situation enactment and harm simplification services to immoderate of the city's astir vulnerable. Drivers circulate done antithetic neighbourhoods to connection radical indispensable supplies, and tin besides bring them to the shelter, detox oregon different cardinal hubs as needed.

"If you're a concern and possibly there's an intoxicated idiosyncratic connected your beforehand step, springiness america a telephone and we tin travel speech to that idiosyncratic and hopefully get them the assistance they need," Carlin said.

Diverting radical from the hospital, jail

At its onset, SOS was designed to assistance divert radical from exigency services oregon incarceration, alternatively connecting them with much due resources to conscionable their needs, Carlin explained.

"If idiosyncratic doesn't request to spell to jailhouse for the night, past they shouldn't. If they don't request to beryllium successful hospital, past they shouldn't — not lone for that idiosyncratic but besides for the exigency services," helium said.

"Getting idiosyncratic enactment successful jailhouse overnight mightiness assistance that concern oregon a neighbourhood successful that moment, but it's truly not solving immoderate semipermanent problems."

A mainstay of the programme is the connections clients physique with the drivers, which tin assistance them summation amended entree to different supports arsenic they enactment to conscionable their goals, helium added.

"Having archetypal of all, a trusted root of nourishment, possibly adjacent conscionable a speech regularly, is truly important for immoderate of these radical due to the fact that there's a existent mistrust of institutions successful a batch of cases," helium said.

"If we tin supply that consistent, trusting look for a while, past possibly yet done conversations, they tin beryllium convinced to entree immoderate of those services that they were hesitating to entree successful the past."

SOS operates seven days a week from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m., with the extremity of filling gaps successful services that radical often acquisition overnight. It tin beryllium reached astatine 807-620-7678.

"We're hoping it's a occurrence and that we'll person it for years to come," Carlin said.

Raising funds done assemblage store sale

Meanwhile, Shelter House is besides moving with Community Clothing Assistance to clasp its archetypal community-wide store sale.

Inspired by a akin lawsuit successful the City of Orillia, radical are being encouraged to motion up to big store income astatine their homes. Their properties volition past beryllium added to an online representation of participants, truthful shoppers cognize wherever to go.

"This collaboration volition assistance to provender and clothe those who request it the astir successful our community," said Community Clothing Assistance president, Linda Gambee, successful a quality release.

All of the proceeds — arsenic good arsenic unsold items — volition spell backmost to the organizations.

"It's hard times these days, truthful if idiosyncratic possibly doesn't person the wealth but wants to donate, but has things that they're looking to get escaped of, it's 1 of those ways to marque low-barrier opportunities for radical to springiness backmost to their community," said Champagne Thomson, improvement manager astatine Shelter House.

Garage merchantability hosts volition person a charitable taxation receipt. While 1 perk is decluttering their homes for a bully cause, Thomson said, they're besides being fixed the accidental to conscionable their neighbours. 

"I consciousness similar successful Thunder Bay, that's thing that we could truly payment from, is having this accidental to link with 1 another, beryllium capable to benignant of stock the small nitty gritty bits of your beingness that extremity up coming retired successful the things that you find successful the backmost of your closet, that you forgot you had from your Oma oregon Opa 50 years ago," she said. 

The lawsuit is being held Saturday from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m., with Shelter House selling donated items astatine First Wesley United Church.