Fall 2022 Newsletter

Nov 18, 2022 | Media, Press Releases

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Message From Chair of Our Board

Thanks to your past years’ donations and support, we have been able to help thousands of seniors since the start of the pandemic with food, housing and income security, mental health and addictions, eviction prevention, homelessness prevention and navigation through a myriad of seniors systems.

As we move into the fall, we are sending you this appeal at a time that we see for some, it is getting harder and harder to stay warm, housed and fed. We help seniors who are homeless, facing eviction, have an empty fridge, or do not have the means to pay their next month’s rent. Some of the people we help are living rough and scattered across the city. We have street outreach workers who are outside seven days a week, checking on them, providing what support they can, encouraging people into shelter or at least staying alive for another short spell. There is such a shortage of housing and shelter space and we know that people living outside are doing their best in some very difficult situations.

Seniors are facing a hard winter of hunger. Thanks to your past donations, food drives and our partnership with Food for Life, we are able to make about 120 emergency deliveries of food each week. While it is good that we are doing it, calls are increasing as prices go up and income supports remain stagnant.

So what can you do to help? Stay involved. Stay resilient. Stay engaged. Are you interested in helping us fulfill this goal to help seniors have a place to thrive? Please think about making a donation to St. Matthew’s House today. It’s going to be a long fall and cold winter. Let’s help make it a bit warmer for seniors in need.

To make an immediate donation go to www.stmatthewshouse.ca or by calling 905-523-5546 x 230. You can also mail us a cheque payable to St. Matthew’s House, 414 Barton Street East, Hamilton, L8L 2Y3.

Thanks for taking the time to consider us. We are the place #wherehopelives.

Mary Burnett
Board Chair

#wherehopelives

Seniors & Street Outreach Support Program Spotlight:

The Housing Focused Street Outreach Team in partnership with St. Matthew’s House and the City of Hamilton/Housing Division works with individuals who are experiencing homelessness and facing barriers to obtaining housing or physical and mental supports within the community.

The Street Outreach team meets people where they are and assists individuals with connecting to support services related to health care, income, housing and other community agencies as needs and goals are identified by the client. HFSO has a strong presence in various parks, the downtown core and other areas where unsheltered individuals stay. Every day, our team is out walking the streets, forming bonds and trusts, which are the step towards finding hope.

Your financial donations help us support this important community need of finding solutions to preventing homelessness.

Food Donations can be dropped off at 705 Main Street East – ramp door off of St. Clair Ave.
Monday to Friday 9am – 3pm

Adopt a Family/Senior Holiday Program

Right now families with children under 17 and seniors 55+ in lower city Hamilton are reaching out to us for help! For over 35 years, our elves have been matching sponsors with families and seniors to help provide a magical holiday.

Please email holidays@stmatthewshouse.ca for more information.

Help Us Light the Way Home for Seniors

We are thrilled to share some of the background of the very exciting 412 Barton Campaign at St. Matthew’s House. The property at 412 Barton, next door to St. Matthew’s House, will be converted to deeply affordable apartments, 15 in all. They will house homeless or near-homeless people, as well as low-income seniors who identify as women, Indigenous peoples, racialized groups including Black Canadians and people with disabilities. These homes will be constructed and occupied in 2023.

To realize this HOPE, St. Matthew’s House is seeking funds through a Capital Campaign to raise $1 million. These funds will support the completion of each home unit, furnishings, laundry and storage facilities, a community food security centre and 24-hour wraparound support for those who will call 412 Barton home. We are thinking of this as LIGHTING THE WAY HOME.

We welcome you to become a champion of this critical need through a gift or ongoing monthly support. Our hope is that your donation will set an example of what is possible for others.

Would you help us light the way home to 412 Barton? Visit stmattthewshouse.ca/412-barton to learn more.

#wherehopelives

Children’s Centres

month, St. Matthew’s House is in the process of submitting our application to the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care System. CWELCC is the funding being offered in the childcare industry by the Federal government to support families through lowered child care fees, with an aim to have fees at about $12.50 per day over the next three years.

We have been working with Green Cities Foundation over the last couple of years to enhance our play space and we have begun the repaving of the driveway and playground. It has been exciting over at 414 and not only are we kee for the work to get done bu the children are getting to watch, and they are completely entranced by the “big work” vehicles.

Last but not least, as you know, we have merged St. peter’s Childcare at 705 Main St E. and we have been making some small but meaningful improvements in that program as well. We have started a ew software called HiMama to be able to communicate more effectively with our families on a daily basis. We are also boosting the IT and telephone capacity and providing better tech support for the team.

Parent Testimonial

Written by: Ellen Morris – SMH Committee Member and friend. Ellen had the chance to sit down and chat with a parent, Liz. Special thanks to Liz for helping us show a parent’s side to the special work our childcare workers to everyday.

We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Xavier’s mom, Liz Lister. Xavier, now four years old, has been attending St. Matthew’s Childcare Centre for almost two years. Liz, a single parent, explained that she was quite nervous at first about leaving Xavier with us for a few reasons. First, until bringing him here, she and Xavier had never spent any significant time apart since he was born. Second, Xavier is on the autism spectrum and struggles with verbal language (although he reads like a champ), so she wasn’t sure how he would adapt to his new surroundings.

It took a while for her to come to fully trust the staff. Now though Liz says, “coming to SMCC changed my life.” She goes on to say the Centre has come to mean, “a familiar face, a safe place.” It provides her with some “relief, reassurance and consistency.” She sometimes wishes the teachers would share more details about how Xavier’s day went, since he is not able to speak about it himself yet. But she understands the time constraints the teachers are under.

That said, joining the Centre has brought Xavier out of his shell and it warms her heart to watch him form new relationships and expand the circle of people around him.

On a final note, Liz, who identifies as lesbian, expressed her appreciation for the diversity of the Centre. She has always felt completely accepted and has never once been made to feel like an outsider in any way.

#wherehopelives

Food Drive Kits

If you are interested in hosting a food drive in support of our Senior Emergency Food Deliveries, please reach out to mbond@stmatthewshouse.ca for more information or go to https://stmatthewshouse.ca/helpus/organize-a-food-drive/ to download a food drive kit. It has everything you would need to host a fun and successful FOOD DRIVE!

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