Next week, hundreds of people will come to Juliet Babirye seeking an escape from this year’s unusually early and cold, snowy weather .

She knows what that’s like. When she first arrived in Toronto from Uganda, she needed the very services she offers today as a homeless shelter support worker. She needed somewhere to sleep, something to eat, and perhaps most of all warmth. When temperatures plunge below freezing, people can lose limbs, die or set fires trying to stay warm in encampments.

“I was in one of those when I first came to Canada,” she said, gesturing at a sea of cots at Exhibition Place’s Better Living Centre that’s again being converted into a 24-hour winter respite site that will ramp up to offer spaces for 250 people over the duration of the season. “I felt I had to give

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