I happy to share with residents that Cornerstone Housing for Women will be moving its emergency shelter on O’Connor Street to 2980 Carling Avenue, the former site of the Carling Family Shelter, at the end of April. This new location will increase its shelter capacity from 61 beds to 150 beds and will provide additional supports to women and gender-diverse adults experiencing homelessness in Ottawa.
The new space will allow Cornerstone to meet the growing demand for shelter services for women and gender-diverse adults experiencing homelessness in Ottawa. Existing services such as case management, housing support, counselling, health care, harm reduction, food, laundry, and more will continue to operate in the new shelter with a vastly increased capacity.
For nearly ten years Cornerstone has been working with the City of Ottawa to move and expand its emergency shelter. The existing shelter was not purpose-built as a shelter which has created challenges for Cornerstone to support the growing needs in the community. Currently, the site has 61 beds that serve women and gender-diverse people each evening.
The Carling Avenue shelter location is accessible – featuring an elevator, large hallways, and a common room that allows then to serve 70 individuals at a time. The new shelter space will allow Cornerstone to develop new community partnerships and grow existing ones to better meet the needs of shelter residents and help move them along their housing journey.
