Downtown Safety Community Partnership prepares for the colder months ahead

As winter approaches, the Downtown Community Safety Partnership (DCSP) continues to work on keeping our city safe, and with colder temperatures arriving, they say a major part of their work is helping people in the downtown area stay warm.

“We’re going to be focusing on a lot of the areas where people may… hide, might not be the best word… but focus on where somebody could stay warm so whether that be behind a dumpster, whether it’s a bit of an alcove where you can stay warm there, we’re going to make sure our teams going and checking on that person,” said Matt Halchakar, the director of operations at DCSP.

The DCSP provides 24-hour, seven-day-a-week support to the downtown community and has completed over 34,000 proactive area checks within the past year. Many of their interactions involve providing food, water, clothing, or wellness checks.

“Winter it’s huge, so whether that be handing out extra clothing that we may have been donated, jackets if we do see someone underdressed were going to go check in with them, we’re going to offer to find either a warmer space, warm clothing, something, we’ll make sure that we get those basic needs to them and support the best we can,” explained Halchakar.

Halchakar says there’s also a big need to provide transportation to shelters in the winter and says one of the most important parts of their service is being proactive.

“We’re going to have our teams respond to calls and the need, but we’re also going to have our teams out and about actively looking for people who may want our support and just showing our proactive presence in areas.”