N’Swakamok Indigenous Friendship Centre donates ice huts to Sudbury homeless

N’Swakamok Indigenous Friendship Centre in Sudbury is using donated insulated ice huts as emergency winter shelters for the homeless.

The N’Swakamok Indigenous Friendship Centre in Sudbury recently made a donation to help homeless people keep warm. It donated 50 insulated ice huts that are making a difference for people now living in them.

The black insulted ice huts dot Energy Court. They were recently donated to people living outdoors in the Energy Court encampment downtown.

“Our people are cold, they are suffering out these on the street and there is quite a large number of Indigenous population and in the encampment as well a non-Indigenous,” said Louise Jacko, the manager for Friendship Centre’s homeless program.

“But over all it’s the homeless is who we did it for.”

One woman, whose street name is Sarah, is living on one of the huts with her boyfriend.

She told CTV News that the insulated ice hut makes a big difference for warmth.

“The cold is bad here so yeah if you fall asleep out here on your own with no blankets even with blankets the likelihood of you waking up is very slim,” said Sarah.

“You warm it up for five minutes and it’s good for hours,” she added talking about the new ice hut.

The Friendship Centre says it has been helping the homeless for more than 30 years. This latest initiative to distribute insulated ice huts was done with funding through Reaching Home funding.

“For us we didn’t necessarily need the spotlight, the limelight,” said Jacko.

“It is all about the homeless. So, we didn’t want to take away from that. We don’t want to take away from that.”

Some people living in the ice huts tell CTV News they have started calling themselves ‘Fellow Otters of the Pro Lodge Club’ and say they are extremely grateful for the donation.

“When I saw the tents and they were really beat up and flimsy… I just couldn’t help but we had to do something,” said Jacko.

“(This) was the only thing that we could come up with, as a temporary measure mind you, but it was something we could do immediately.”

Officials with N’Swakamok Indigenous Friendship Centre said they hope that the temporary measure helps people stay warm until they get a place to call home.