Samaritan’s Purse Canada has sent team members to the northern Ontario city of Thunder Bay to help homeless shelters cope with caring for potential COVID-19 patients. 

The Thunder Bay region has the highest COVID-19 rate in Ontario. About half the current cases are amongst the city’s homeless shelters. This has overwhelmed shelters, who have moved almost 100 people into two hotels which are serving as isolation units. 

In response to a request from the municipal government for assistance, Samaritan’s Purse has sent 15 emergency response staff to the city to help however they are needed. 

Frank King, from Samaritan’s Purse, says they are doing whatever is being asked of them, “It can be something simple as dropping off food at hotel rooms for the folks in isolation, cleaning some rooms, anything else the local health care folks don't have time to get through there themselves.....so this is definitely very different from anything that Samaritan's Purse has done before.” 

Samaritan’s Purse staffers are following all COVID-19 safety protocols as they provide emergency stop-gap support. That support could include cleaning rooms, transporting food, caring for the needs of residents, and more. It will not include healthcare delivery or security. 

This is the second Samaritan’s Purse response in Thunder Bay. In 2012, the organization sent one of its specially equipped Disaster Relief Unit tractor trailers to the city and mobilized local volunteers to clean up homes flooded by heavy rain and a breakdown in the city’s sewage pumping station. 

In recent years, Samaritan’s Purse has assisted victims of a wide variety of Canadian and international disasters including flooding in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, plus tornadoes in Ontario, and forest fires in British Columbia and Alberta. 

Samaritan’s Purse’s “sister” organization, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada, often helps by providing crisis-trained chaplains to comfort and pray with hurting people. Two volunteer Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains are in Thunder Bay. 

To support Samaritan’s Purse’s disaster relief efforts, please visit SamaritansPurse.ca (click on “Donate”) or call 1-800-663-6500.