This Christmas, London, Ont., 'is making room at the inn' for the city's homeless

Officials with city hall and homeless relief agencies unveiled a newly built shelter in McMahen Park on Tuesday as part of a winter emergency plan to provide safe, heated spaces for people who sleep rough in the city. 

For months, a growing number of homeless encampments have appeared in London, Ont., spurred by an unprecedented real estate boom and exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis when it erupted in March. 

Now, as part of a broader campaign to get the growing number of people sleeping in the spaces where people walk or on scraps of green space near the Thames River, officials with city hall and community relief agencies have built temporary shelters in McMahen Park and a parking lot closer to the city core in an effort to get people in from the cold.  

On Tuesday, officials with the project offered a tour to the city's media, showing a site in McMahen Park, which could house up to 30 people by Christmas Eve. 

The facility includes private sleeping quarters for 30 people and their pets. There's a common area with washrooms and showers located in the adjacent building, a Victorian-era structure that was once part of the former Wolsely Barracks that once occupied the site. 

Officials hope the relief facility will be able to carry dozens of people through the winter and, if necessary, also provide shelter from the swelter of the southwestern Ontario summer in the New Year.