Strong start for Stratford’s Coldest Night of the Year 2025 campaign

The Coldest Night of the Year campaign for 2025 already has lots of eager walkers signed up and thousands of dollars raised to help those facing homelessness.

The Coldest Night of the Year, raising funds for the United Way Perth-Huron’s Connection Centre and ShelterLink Youth Services, will be held on Feb. 22, 2025. The event will be in a new location this year in the Lakeside Drive parking lot across from Tom Patterson Island.

The Coldest Night of the Year is an annual event hosted across Canada during which municipalities raise money towards services helping those facing homelessness. As of Dec. 10, 87 individuals and 23 teams have registered in Stratford, with $10,525 raised of this year’s $200,000 goal. Stratford’s event has several sponsors including McDonald’s Mitchell, Ideal Supply, Home and Company Real Estate, Coventry and Mitchell Veterinary Services, Peter Maranger and Associates, Malt Staging and Design, Gotech, Romeo Optometry, Westlandyn Farms and Mark’s Work Warehouse.

Participants will walk either two or five kilometres and then meet back at the parking lot during the social period to enjoy refreshments such as soup from Soup Surreal.

The Connection Centre, operated by Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Huron-Perth, provides essential basic needs such as showers, winter clothing, warm socks, laundry, hot meals and sandwiches to go. About 35 people visit the Connection Centre daily with 312 unique visitors annually. The centre also connects people to social service providers with the goal of helping them obtain and retain stable housing.

"Every month, we find great success stories of people who find housing as the result of their connection with our work,” said Ryan Erb, executive director for United Way Perth-Huron.

ShelterLink Youth Services provides outreach and shelter space with 15 emergency beds for youth between 16 and 24 years old who are experiencing homelessness.

"Winter is definitely a time where we see an increased need for the youth in our community,” said Cate Trudeau, ShelterLink executive director.

The United Way Perth-Huron saw a rise in people experiencing homelessness over the past five or six years. Erb said the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the issue, along with the increased cost of living.

“Everyone's experienced that, whether it's food or rent, whatever the case may be,” he said. “Increasingly, we're seeing people experiencing homelessness are families and seniors in addition to people who are working and living in their car."

Erb said more people are experiencing chronic homelessness. The longer someone goes without housing, the more issues they could face.

“They might begin with one issue,” Erb said. “Maybe they became homeless because they lacked the money to rent a place, but over time, they cope, maybe they come to an addiction, maybe they sustain an injury, either physical or a brain injury while they're in that position, and not before long, (housing) becomes much more difficult to find for people.

"We need to intervene early and fast. That's the best way to do it, to house people first, but we have a challenge because we don't have enough housing, right? It's difficult work to find the appropriate supportive housing that people need.”

Trudeau said ShelterLink also saw more youth seeking shelter and outreach services with 107 youth currently supported in both programs and 58 needing shelter in the past year. The COVID-19 pandemic also led to issues tied to youth experiencing homelessness, as well as mental-health issues and substance use among parents and the youth themselves.

"Like everyone, that isolation (led to) increased conflict and increased tensions between families,” Trudeau said. “What we found is that youth being part of those family units were part of those conflicts or impacted in family conflicts."

Stratford’s 2024 Coldest Night of the Year campaign raised $209,000 by 71 teams and 464 walkers, and it was the top fifth Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser in Canada.

"We definitely welcome the community to come out,” Trudeau said. “We'd like it to be even bigger and better than last year.”

Additional regional Coldest Night of the Year walks will be held in Goderich, Wingham, St. Marys, North Perth and Exeter. For more information on registering and donating, visit cnoy.org/location/stratford.