St. Matthew’s House: Helping people out of the cold
When winter comes to Hamilton, staying warm is a matter of life and death for those living on the streets. St. Matthew’s House is there to provide shelter when the temperatures fall, as part of its mandate to be a place where hope lives.
As it gets colder, we go inside, turn up the heat or snuggle down in front of a fireplace. For some Hamiltonians, winter is not that easy. For those living on the streets, it’s a time to get strategic so they don’t freeze to death. They must rely on the help provided by charitable people or organizations such as St. Matthew’s House, which runs a warming centre, a place where people can come in and get warm. Even if it’s just for a little while.
Since 1964, St. Matthew’s House (SMH) has helped vulnerable people in Hamilton.
“It started when a church burned down on Barton and St. Matthews Avenue,” explains Renée Wetselaar, executive director of SMH. “They took the insurance money from that and bought a building across the street, opened a kitchen to help people out and it grew from there. We ran one of the first childcare centres that worked with subsidies. We had one of the early food banks in the city, (which was) part of the emergency food system that eventually formed Food Share.”
SMH’s critical work is both deep and broad.
Wetselaar has been with SMH since 2018, taking the helm when it was struggling, and has overseen some transformative programs and growing its team from 30 to 90 people. In some cases, SMH has taken over responsibility for services when other non-profits close, such as the Gatekeeper program that cleans and purges units to help people stay housed. SMH took over the program in 2023 and has prevented almost 100 evictions since then.
It now operates two childcare centres when SMH amalgamated with St. Peter’s Day Care program, including before and after school programs, supporting 250 families in Hamilton a day. Its Holiday Hope program helps families and seniors thrive at what can be a hard time of year.
SMH has worked closely with the City of Hamilton and its street outreach team. Last winter, the partnership provided a warming bus. However, with a recent announcement of additional funding to increase shelter space, the City says there will be enough beds this winter that the bus will not be needed.
But the work of the street outreach team will continue.
SMH applied to Christ’s Church Cathedral to operate a drop-in centre and, last December, opened Cathedral Café, a warming centre at the corner of James Street North and Barton Street, assisting more than 20,000 people since.
“We hope the outcomes (of our work) are helping and obviously saving lives,” says Wetselaar. “We're not going to plan your life far into the future, we just hope to see you tomorrow. Our outreach workers will encourage people to come to the café where there’s community, clothing, and to connect with services. We have every health bus in the city stopping there on different days of the week.”
Recently, the City made a new request of SMH to provide management services for the yet-to-be-determined HATS (Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters) village. St. Matthew’s will operate the future tiny homes site, providing support, staffing and partnering with HATS to bring it to life.
“It’s an alternative to living in a tent,” she says. “It’s not permanent housing. so part of the objective is that, with the right supports, the right shelter, with autonomy, we can move people into more permanent situations, whether it’s housing for themselves or moving back with family or connecting with community. That’s why we’re taking this on, because it demonstrates the continuum of our work with encampments, our work with the sanction sites, our work with food delivery, income support and then building permanent housing.”
There is also a capital campaign underway to build 412 Barton, a modular project now under construction that will provide 15 deeply affordable units for seniors facing homelessness. It will have a special focus on Indigenous and Black older adults 55-plus, with 50 per cent of units designated for women.
SMH is also connected to a variety of research projects happening at McMaster University and works with the Hamilton Police Service to provide support services.
“It’s part of working more deeply in community, it’s really important to collaborate with others because the need is so great. We wait until we’re asked because we want to stay in our lane. If nobody else is going to do it, we’ll try to help if we have the capacity. We are pushing forward at the same time for better working conditions, better wages, and looking into harm reduction in a very positive proactive way.”
Wetselaar is constantly researching solutions to poverty and homelessness, by sitting on councils, attending conferences, reading studies, looking at cities or projects with successful interventions and programs, and partnering with unions and other organizations. To her, helping is more than just a job.
To her, helping is more than just a job.
“I’ve lived in Hamilton my whole life. I lived outside the city for two short years, and I have always had a very passionate commitment to this city,” she says. “I identify as a Hamiltonian, I’ve watched it ebb and flow. I just really care about the city, about the people and, as we see more and more people live outside, rather than just cry or get mad about it, if we can do something, even if it’s something as small as hoping you’ll see the person the next day, that means a lot. Peoples’ lives have been saved as a result of all this work and I find that really important and meaningful.”
A glimpse into living on the streets in winter
Knox has been living on the streets for more than 10 years. Featured in Human Beings of Hamilton frequently, he shares his life on the street and living with addiction. He believes in the importance of showing the reality of this life. He’s learned over the years how to survive the winter on the street – maybe not without frostbite but at least to see another day.
“It’s cold. It’s very difficult,” explains Knox.
“I’ll do anything I can to stay warm – lots of layers, try to get good warm clothes. I try to build a shelter, off the ground a bit so we’re not directly on the ground. I usually build my own fireplace then try to make sure nothing catches on fire that isn’t in the fireplace. Usually, shelter is a tent, and you’re not supposed to have an open flame in a tent, so you have to arrange yourself around the fire. It’s really important to make sure nothing catches on fire because waking up on fire is almost as bad as waking up freezing to death.”
He has suffered the consequences of living without warmth in the winter.
“When I was younger, it was mostly bad snowfall, then it started being frigidly cold. You get frostbite on your toes and fingers, and every year it comes back worse. It’s painful.”
Knox says he does use the SMH warming centre, but the growing population on the streets makes it hard to stay warm for long.
“There’s just so many people now that you go in, warm up for 20 minutes, then go out because there are other people who want to come in and warm up.”
When asked how people can help, Knox suggests a weatherproof sleeping bag.
“You have to have some sort of a shelter,” he says. “If you have to build one, you build one.”
