On Monday, a new daytime shelter service was supposed to begin out of the Royal City Mission, and while it was not going to offer the 12 hours of service per day that was originally intended last fall, it was, if nothing else, a start. But on Thursday there was a sudden turn in this story, separate announcements from both Stepping Stone and Royal City Mission that their collaboration on a new daytime shelter will not be going forward.

In a social media post late on Thursday afternoon, Stepping Stone said that due to the ongoing construction at their location on Gordon Street they could not meet the timeline to deliver the service as promised in a City of Guelph media release posted two days before Christmas.

“We have been in close communication with Royal City Mission and City [of Guelph] staff following the December budget approval in the hopes of finding a bridge solution,” the statement read. “Ultimately, those efforts were unsuccessful and we cannot finalize the agreement.”

Royal City Mission posted a statement of their own earlier on Thursday with updated hours starting next week that were more inline with their previously announced reduced service schedule they released in December; RCM will only offer shelter services on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons plus Sunday mornings.

“Just before Christmas, we were then asked to consider temporarily filling a gap in services while other organizations prepared to assume operations later this spring,” said RCM executive director and lead pastor Kevin Coghill in an open letter. “With a deep commitment to caring for those who would be most affected by a reduction in services, RCM staff worked through the holidays to prepare to open.”

“Despite these efforts, we do not currently have a formal agreement in place that would allow us to sustain seven-day-a-week programming. As a result, we are unable to move forward at that level of service at this time,” he added.

Neither statements went into any detail as to why they could not reach a formal agreement with the City of Guelph, or why this failure was only announced on Thursday afternoon just four days before the new daytime shelter service was scheduled to begin. Even the Mayor of Guelph seemed unsure why this all fell apart…

“I’m both saddened and deeply concerned with news of this situation. Until today we were under the impression that this new contracted service was moving forward to help those in real need in our community,” said Cam Guthrie in a social media post Thursday night.

“I can attest that the efforts by many, including city staff, were very focused on getting an agreement in place to start this coming Monday,” he added. “However, now knowing this won’t happen, the urgency of this issue requires us to consider other options and I’m committed to exploring what can be done alongside staff and my city council colleagues as soon as possible.”

During the 2026 budget confirmation process, Guelph City Council agreed to commit $850,000 annually to provide daytime shelter services. The amount was approximately half of the requested from the one response to the City’s request for proposals launched in summer 2025 seeking a community group or coalition of community groups to provide day-time shelter services.

Royal City Mission and Stepping Stone, in their combined application, offered to provide a 12-hour per day, seven days a week drop-in space, with the time evenly split between their two facilities for an annual budget of $1.7 million; $1.5 million for operations, staffing, and administrative costs and $200,000 for the provision of food services. When council approved the $850,000, it came with no indication about how they arrived at that number or how the service could be provided for half the request budget. Council’s deliberations were in-camera.

Then, almost a month later on December 23, the City of Guelph announced that they had reached a tentative agreement with Stepping Stone and Royal City Mission to provide service out of RCM on Quebec Street until the end of March when the services would then be run out of Stepping Stone once the renovations adding an additional floor of shelter beds were complete. The release said that operating details including hours of service would be released once contract deals were finalized.

“Stepping Stone is proud to lead this important program, and we want to thank the City of Guelph for this new investment that makes this work possible,” said then-executive director of Stepping Stone Gail Hoekstra said in a statement. “Our goal is to provide a trauma-informed, low-barrier space that meets immediate needs while also supporting long-term housing success and community connection.”

So what comes next? Sound like it’s literally back to the drawing board…

“The City will issue a new request for proposals in the coming weeks,” said the City of Guelph in a social media post sharing Stepping Stone’s post. “We remain committed to finding solutions so vulnerable residents can access essential services.”