No one is going hungry during Verdi shelter COVID-19 outbreak, Social Services CEO says

The City of Sault Ste. Marie’s homeless shelter at the Verdi Hall site at 455 Queen St. West is currently experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak within its walls and is temporarily closed to new clients.

“Unfortunately some of the community members who are homeless and staying at the shelter we directly operate have screened positive for COVID. When that happened, we started working with Algoma Public Health (APH) because it’s a congregate living site,” said Mike Nadeau, District of Sault Ste Marie Social Services Administration Board (DSSMSSAB) chief executive officer Monday.

The Verdi shelter COVID outbreak officially began Saturday.  

Though not closed by any means, Nadeau said “it’s not accepting anyone new from the community (for now). We have the existing clientele that are staying there so we’re going to continue to serve that group and make sure we have to be a little bit more firm on PPE and some of the other requirements than we have in the past. We always tried to remind people (about such precautions as masking) but now we have to make it absolutely mandatory.” 

Nadeau told SooToday the homeless shelter at Pauline’s Place at 235 Wellington St. West is still available and accepting homeless clients.

Nadeau spoke to reports of food donations to the Verdi site - from members of the community - being turned away.

“We can only accept prepared food from approved providers in accordance with public health recommendations and guidelines.”

Approved prepared food for City shelters, Nadeau said, currently comes from the Indigenous Friendship Centre and Harvest Algoma.

“What we would encourage, rather than dropping off food, is perhaps make a monetary donation to one of the existing shelters like the Verdi, Pauline’s Place or the Soup Kitchen. We can’t risk a food-borne illness to come into the shelter and make people ill. This has been the requirement since we opened. People donate food for the right reasons however we’re liable for that if someone gets sick. It can come from an approved kitchen like the Indigenous Friendship Centre, Harvest Algoma, or, if need be, we’ll order directly from a restaurant and have it delivered.”

Nadeau emphasized that breakfast, lunch and dinner is provided to homeless shelter clients at the Verdi site in response to social media posts that allege clients are going hungry at the Verdi site due to the outbreak.

“I do know we have set meal schedules seven days a week. It’s possible someone left the shelter and missed the dinner schedule.”

“There are (also) snacks available 24 hours a day,” Nadeau said.

Nadeau said clients at the Verdi site are being encouraged to isolate due to the current COVID outbreak at the site, “but we cannot force people to stay there. It is a shelter so people are free to come and go as they please in accordance with our overall shelter policy (but) we are strongly recommending that people don’t leave the shelter, to try and control it (the possible spread of COVID).”

Nadeau said the Verdi site will be closed to new clients until Feb. 18.

“That’s 12 days from today. 10 days is the minimum recommendation (for isolation) but we’re going to the 14 days in total because we put this into effect on Saturday (Feb. 5).     

Nadeau said the Verdi site can typically accommodate 40 people, estimating the shelter had 30 clients Monday.