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Power of Prayer Wins Out Over Cash at Homeless Shelter
HAYLEY MICK
TORONTO -- For more than 30 years, the old All Saints Church has been providing a makeshift living room for people who don't have one.
On a typical day, inside the church on Dundas Street East at Sherbourne Street, hundreds of people sip free coffee, banter with friends, or plop down in a chair to catch a movie and rest weary feet.
Far less often -- on Sundays only -- there's prayer.
That's about to change. The leader of the community centre, Rev. Jeannie Loughrey, says she's bringing a more faith-based approach to the operation -- even if it means losing $143,000 in critical city funding for the daytime drop-in centre that provides shelter, food and health services to hundreds of homeless people every day.
Her decision, made with the blessing of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, means some program changes and at least two drop-in centre employees will be replaced with workers who have "a sense of religious vocation to the work," she said.
Ms. Loughrey, who has run All Saints for 10 years and dedicated her life to serving others, says she's prepared to risk losing the majority of her funding because she believes the changes will enhance the way her clients are served.
"All Saints is a church," the priest said yesterday. "This is like value-added."
But the move has alarmed homeless advocates who predict it spells the end of one of the oldest, largest and necessary shelters in Toronto.
"We're going to fight this as we have never fought before," said Beric German, a member of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. "There will be a battle here."
Also worried are city officials, who were surprised this fall when Ms. Loughrey told them that she would not be applying for funding in 2007 because she planned to close the drop-in centre, according to Kevin Lee, a manager in the municipal shelter support and housing administration division.
"We asked them to continue the service until April," Mr. Lee said. "We don't know the full scope of those changes and what those changes mean for the clients."
City and All Saints staff will continue discussing their options. But no matter what anyone says, the drop-in centre will remain open, Ms. Loughrey says. The building has provided drop-in services in various capacities since the church was disestablished as a parish in 1974, and continued on a path rooted in the Anglican Church's commitment to community service.
"I'm not interested in shutting down the drop-in . . . I know the drop-in can't close," Ms. Loughrey said.
These days, the drop-in centre is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and offers a range of services, including referrals, needle exchange, condom distribution, pastoral counselling, Internet access, books on loan and daily movies. It also provides more basic -- but equally needed services -- such as washrooms.
Yesterday morning, the floor was teeming with at least 50 people. Many had come for the coffee and the movie, Monsters Inc. Many more were lining up to answer questions from city officials (Mr. Lee said the survey is a way of assessing what services are needed), in exchange for $10.
One patron, Arthur, a blue-eyed former carnival worker with long grey hair stuffed under a baseball cap, has been dropping in to All Saints for 18 years.
Asked about the proposed new religious bent to the program, he grinned.
"This is a church," he said, spreading his callused hands wide.
The decision to change the shelter's direction "was not made lightly," Ms. Loughrey says. "We're reclaiming work that somewhere along the line became somewhat fractured."
On Monday, two staff members were told they would soon be out of a job. Ms. Loughrey says they will be replaced with people who "have a really strong calling toward doing what they're doing as opposed to looking for a job because it matches their skill sets."
But that doesn't mean they have to be Anglican, or even Christian, she said.
In fact, the priest's current assistant, Naomi Levy, is Jewish. Ms. Levy, who calls herself an "honorary Anglican," says she'll stay on at the church after April.
"There's enough services around here that are just support," she said, waving her arm to indicate the nursing and social service centres dotting Sherbourne Street. "I think it's really important for people to have a spiritually loving place for them to come."
Officials at the Diocese of Toronto say they stand squarely behind Ms. Loughrey.
"We really don't have anything more to add to what Jeannie says. She's the expert, and she's running the show there," said diocese spokesman Stuart Mann.
Others say the last thing the city's homeless need is another shelter reducing its services.
"All I can tell you is that that place is the heart and soul of many people's lives," said Cathy Crowe, a street nurse who began her career at All Saints 17 years ago.
"It's pretty dire there. Where will people go? Personally, I'm quite disappointed. I've worked in this area a long time. . . . Nobody has said to me, gee, what do you think about this?"
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