A fire broke out Tuesday night at Rosewood House, Brantford’s largest homelessness shelter, leaving 40 residents without a place to stay or the essential services they rely on.
Ryan Stephenson is one of those people.
“Most of my stuff’s actually still in there,” he told CTV News on Wednesday. “All I could get was just a change of clothes and I got a little bag on my back.”
Homelessness is nothing new to those who stay at Rosewood House.
“Some decided to sleep in the park,” said Tim Philp, the shelter’s executive director. “A lot of them went to motels that have been set up through the SOAR organization that does the intake for homelessness. We had some people couch surf.”
He said the fire appeared to be accidental and started on the stove top around 6:30 p.m.
“It was limited to the kitchen,” said City Councillor Dan McCreary. “The fire doors worked. It didn’t spread anywhere else.”
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