Laundry, showers now at North House
Justyne Edgell, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Those in North Durham who are experiencing homelessness are now able to go to North House to do their laundry or have a shower.
New shower facilities are now available for both clients and non-clients use at North House in Uxbridge.
North House, an organization that provides a spectrum of housing supports for those who are at risk or in crisis within the communities of North Durham, recently announced that it can finally offer these two services, which were promised when the organization took over its current location in the Rexall Plaza in October 2022.
During the construction and renovation phase of the new space, they built shower, laundry and kitchen facilities for people experiencing homelessness, as these types of services were not available in north Durham.
“The move to a larger office space allowed us to provide more essential services to individuals experiencing homelessness, but we limited the use of these services to individuals connected to our caseworkers while we navigated the first year of operations," says North House executive director, Mona Emond. “We worked through the potential risk factors like pests, biohazards, and substance use, and developed procedures that focused on keeping both the user and staff as safe as possible.”
Laundry is also available to both clients and non-clients of North House.
North House was then able to officially open these services to the North Durham community.
“This means that individuals experiencing homelessness who do not have access to laundry and a shower will be able to come in to use the service, even if they are not a client of ours,” says Emond, who also mentions that these services are also available to clients of other agencies or establishments who are not connected to North House.
Emond says that this program also allows the North House team to offer their housing services when unconnected patrons come in for laundry or shower, even though it is not a requirement to work on housing solutions to use these services.
“Our caseworkers will oversee the services being used when on site so it will be by appointment only,” says Emond, “and we will be limiting the individual to two loads of laundry per appointment due to the length of time a load takes to complete.”
Individuals seeking help with accessing basic needs and supports can be referred to North House through email - referrals@northhouse.ca.
“We will contact the individual within 2 business days to schedule them in for their first appointment and give them the downlow of how it all works.”