The twenty-four room Annex Hotel at 296 Brunswick Avenue has re-opened its doors to accommodate Toronto healthcare workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Mid-March we closed our doors to the public proactively, obviously, as a result of COVID-19 becoming a bigger and bigger kind of presence,” said General Manager Ryan Killeen. “We re-opened the hotel early April to frontline health care workers, and we were able to do so through a private donor. The cost of our rooms has been sponsored through the end of June, which means that we were able to put health care workers up on a complimentary basis.”

The hotel has been fully occupied since the initiative was launched. All services are provided online and by text message or phone.

“The healthcare workers have been very appreciative that we were able to assist and provide them with a place to call home,” said Killeen. “It’s alleviated stress for them. I mean, there’s a lot of healthcare workers who are living with immunocompromised parents and children. So going home after work is a very anxious feeling for them and they’ve been very appreciative that they’re able to come back to The Annex Hotel and self-isolate in their own rooms.”

The Annex Hotel has launched an online store where the community can participate in the initiative.

“We know there are many organizations and people out there stepping up,” Killeen explained. “We hope that by adding our name to the chorus, it will give others a chance to join in to support everyone who is, in turn, supporting us.”

—Tanya Ielyseieva, Gleaner News

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