Back when the pandemic first started in 2020, Larry Law received a phone call he won’t soon forget.
The call set in motion events that led to Law opening the doors of his Living Water Resort to Out of the Cold Collingwood, so people experiencing homelessness in South Georgian Bay could have a safe, physically distanced place to stay throughout the pandemic.
Last week, after nearly 16 months of the emergency shelter operating out of Living Stone Golf Resort, the shelter moved on to a new location, leaving a lasting impression on the people who work at the resort, including Law himself.
When the pandemic started in March 2020, Law had been considering different ways he could offer help to the community.
“I had been thinking about, how do we help the people who will suffer the most? I’m a person of action. If I see something, and I can do something, I will do it,” said Law.
Around the same time, Law said, Mayor Brian Saunderson reached out to him to discuss the issue of homelessness in Collingwood.
Law said Saunderson asked if he would meet with Pam Hillier, executive director of Community Connections which oversaw the Out of the Cold Collingwood program. Hillier told him that the County of Simcoe would be starting an emergency program where they would be paying to house homelessness programs across Simcoe County in hotels and motels so social distancing could be accomplished as per the health unit’s pandemic guidelines.
All the program needed was a hotel to agree to let them stay.
“She said she could not find a place to house the people experiencing homelessness,” said Law. “When she was describing to me what was happening, I was in tears.”
Law has been a long-time philanthropist and business owner in Collingwood. Twenty years ago, he considered himself a regular business owner driven by money and status. However, a significant personal event made him completely change his perspective, and turn to God in a time of need.
“My wife passed away. I had money to take care of her and get the best doctors. I thought money could do anything,” he said. “It made me reconsider, what is the meaning of life?”
After that, Law turned to religion and found, to him, the meaning of life is love and contributions you can provide to the world.
“I apply this mission into my life. When you live in a society, you have a mission to go beyond just taking care of yourself,” he said. “It opened my eyes. In my life now, I have a purpose. I can do more, and I have more inner joy.”
Law admits that while he was happy to open his doors to the emergency shelter, he did feel some fear and unease initially because of the stigma that surrounds people experiencing homelessness.
“We didn’t know anything about them. There was uncertainty. We were worried for the first few days,” he said. “We also worried about our reputation. We have a high-end resort. I was worried people wouldn’t want to come here.”
Law pushed past those fears because he felt, in his heart, that helping others was the right thing to do.
“If an (opportunity) is right in front of us and we don’t do anything or don’t help, I don’t think I could stand up tall,” said Law. “It was an easy decision.”
Many of Law’s initial fears turned out to be unfounded.
Law provided space on two floors of the Living Stone Golf Resort (formerly known at the Cranberry Club) for the emergency shelter to use. He also made sure the resort participated weekly in the shelter’s meal program, provided special holiday dinners to participants and even ended up hiring four people out of the program to work at the resort and provided them with staff housing when they were ready.
“We wanted to offer them a job, but also offer them a nurturing working environment. We treat people with care,” said Law. “They’re doing a great job.”
Sara Peddle, executive director of The Busby Centre who oversees the Collingwood COVID-19 Emergency Shelter and Out of the Cold Collingwood, said Law and his staff have been excellent to work with throughout the pandemic.
“It was definitely a game-changer for us, especially when we were entering into the first stages of the pandemic and we didn’t really have a lot of clear direction and answers. While health partners were working to figure things out, we needed a space to make sure people were safe.”
Peddle said in Collingwood and Barrie, there have been zero cases of COVID-19 in the shelter system. As she said there tends to be a large number of immunocompromised individuals staying in shelters, this was a major concern from a health standpoint.
“Shelters are congregate settings. (It meant) we were able to properly isolate people from possibly spreading any virus. We were fortunate to be able to put that safety in place,” she said.
When it comes to the special relationship forged between Living Water and Out of the Cold Collingwood over the past year and a half, she said she finds it inspiring.
“It shows it takes a community to look after our most vulnerable, and it says a lot about that community. Collingwood and South Georgian Bay is a very caring community and doesn’t want to leave anybody behind,” she said. “They’ve been absolutely amazing.”
Peddle said it was time for the shelter to move to a new place to be able to address more fulsomely some of the more complex issues felt by clients, such as mental health and addiction. She said a smaller space is one of the ways the shelter will be addressing those issues.
CollingwoodToday.ca has agreed to not release the new COVID-19 Emergency Shelter location for the privacy and safety of individuals who use the shelter.
“It served its purpose for what we were doing at the time, but now that it’s evolved over the past 16 months, we noticed the need to be more intimate in our work with the individuals we’re serving,” she said.
Even though the shelter has moved on to a new space, Peddle said conversations are continuing with Living Water as they are still keen to help the shelter, which could include coming up with more housing solutions in South Georgian Bay.
“I can’t express the gratitude I have for the leadership at Living Water. All their staff were amazing. It wasn’t just, ‘Here are some rooms.’ It was very much about being part of the journey and really caring about people without judgment,” said Peddle. “I was honoured to be on that journey with them.”