Remarks at the 37th Mayors’ Dinner by Stephanie and Joe Mancini
Published June 2026
Every day at St. John’s Kitchen we witness a drug crisis that continues to grow. We see sons and daughters, sisters and brothers lost to a drug trade that leaves lasting scars and horrific damage to body and psyche. We know it is a violation of human dignity and community solidarity. How can we respond to help reduce the level of poverty, the lack of connection, the lack of housing, the bitterness of being left to fight for one’s own survival?
When you see a new drug alert being announced, this is lives impacted. Daily we are helping people to prevent overdoses as deep addictions drive people to take the drugs that are literally poisoning them. Our teams are watching people’s breaths, counting their oxygen levels, doing CPR, and using Ambubags to aid breathing. Nalaxone responds to the fentanyl in the body, but not to the growing number of additives and sedatives in the drugs. We call EMS several times a day and people are sometimes escorted to hospital and sometimes stay with us for monitoring. Watching people move from near death back to consciousness has become a regular activity.
People dealing with homelessness have often already been destabilized from relationship breakdowns, physical health issues, mental health issues, or being excluded from the labour market. The addiction to debilitating drugs only worsens the situation.
This evening is about public spaces and inclusion. St. John’s Kitchen is a place that witnesses the love expressed as we practice this welcome. Many here helped us to build this beautiful space. When we designed the new SJK, we knew it was possible to open as a Warming Centre. Going into the winter, it was clear that there was a lack of shelter spaces. Each night, as we closed the doors to SJK, this stark reality struck home.
With frigid temperatures forecasted through January, we could feel the unbearable burden people were carrying trying to find warmth and shelter. We felt the moral imperative to open our doors overnight.
Overnight Warming Centre
It was a blessing that by mid-January we had both the generous community donations and the people to be able to open this space through the night to provide warmth and shelter. The conditions were minimal, with 2 blankets each and people sleeping on the floor, but each night we saw increasing numbers of people coming, and we are now hosting over 140 people a night. One team member who came to the warming centre from one of our housing projects noted she will miss the lovely humans she has gotten to meet at the Warming Centre. Gregory Boyle reminds us that unshakeable goodness exists in everyone.
Housing at 97 Victoria
Many have asked about the 44 housing units at 97 Victoria that we proudly showed off in September. While the main floor was completed, we just received substantial completion of the building on March 26th of this year. The countdown starts now. We want to fill those units as soon as possible but we also need full support to ensure we have the on-site counselling, social engagement activities, and medical supports to fully help people progress past the barriers they face.
And finally, the 22 dorm units on the second floor at 97 Victoria will be supported through Regional Supportive Housing, making space to offer the kind of housing, health, and daily living supports that help people move away from street culture and build their lives in community.
We are creating housing with the same welcome and non-judgement, which will be a space where people can rest enough to see the positive changes they can make in their lives once they feel safe. We are building a vision where this housing, with the medical clinic on the main floor will start to exist alongside the dominant drug culture, gradually seeding the help and hope that people can escape the grasp of the drugs that take over their lives.
Social Medicine Hub at 97 Victoria with WRHN
We are excited to share tonight that we are working with Waterloo Region Health Network (WRHN) Medicine to establish a Social Medicine vision that embraces the principles of social medicine and integrates the work of The Working Centre and other community partners with a hospital supported presence in community.
Social medicine is a proactive approach to health that prioritizes care for marginalized populations. The approach is to support people dealing with the abject poverty of homelessness with specialized supports and care.
The core of this growing partnership is to build on The Working Centre’s substantial resources, both physical assets and on-the-street-outreach work. 97 Victoria will be a social medicine hub where:
First: We turn the 87 Victoria Hospitality House into an 8-bed house to provide a 12-week respite for those homeless being discharged to the street, or who are unable to go to hospital.
Second: The development of a Dunn House model of housing, a social medicine model of supportive housing using the top floor of our new 97 Victoria housing. For people who are experiencing homelessness and accessing the Emergency Department regularly, the prescription is housing with healthcare supports. This builds stability towards wellness and appropriate care.
Third: The 3,000 square foot St. John’s Kitchen Medical Clinic will serve as a base for wider integrated social medicine projects and provide care where people are. Can we reduce barriers to help people avoid the Emergency Department and to receive care in a harm reduction context? Community Paramedics are poised to offer support in the clinic and on-call.
Fourth: The social medicine concept is rooted in the same Outreach model of our work with people in encampments, on the street, in motels, or in precarious housing. This low-barrier mental-health and addictions care builds relationships that help people to feel safe and cared for. The work of our SOS and street outreach, along with the work of our health care partners like the CHC and Sanguen, will integrate with the clinic as we develop and strengthen wrap-around supports.
With creative partnerships, we are building on the beautiful gift of our new campus at St. John’s Kitchen, a purpose built space that can help us respond to the deep despair and harsh living conditions of people living without access to safe and stable housing.
With determined hope we learn from the people who are a part of St. John’s Kitchen and Outreach, understanding more about how to love and care for people. Our goals are new services, new housing, deep inclusion and belonging, forms of community solidarity that need to grow.
