NO SHELTER EXPANSION PLAN IN SIGHT

Province Funding 200 New Beds for Calgary Homeless

EDMONTON - The homeless shelter at the George Spady Centre is already
turning dozens of people away on some nights because it runs out of
room.

"We are always short of beds," centre co-director Lorette Garrick said
Saturday, after Calgary received provincial funding to expand its
homeless shelters by 200 beds. The shelter for men with substance
abuse problems has room for 72 and sometimes squeezes in 75 but on
busy nights 20 to 30 men can be turned away.

Some sleep in parkades, she said; others in doorways. Some just keep
moving to make sure they don't freeze to death.

On very cold nights the shelter will let the overflow in, but Garrick
said all the shelter staff can do is offer them a chair to sit on once
all the beds and mats are in use.

The Herb Jamieson Centre has 229 beds for homeless men plus 20 mats,
another 30 in a trailer next door and, when it's cold, emergency mats
are added in a nearby chapel, said Colette Lepage, the centre's
community relations co-ordinator.

This shelter does not turn anyone away except for those who are under
the influence, who are sent across the street to the overcrowded Spady
Centre, she said. "By next year we will have room for another 200 people."

The women's shelter is often 20 or 30 per cent over capacity and needs
money for expansion, said Martin Garber-Conrad of the Edmonton City
Centre Church Corporation. The official capacity is 66 but with mats
they can provide sleeping space for 75, he said. "We regularly have
75, 80, 95 women in a day."

At least a third of the homeless women have mental health issues and
while the shelter tries to let everyone in, some leave when the beds
and mats are full and all shelter staff can offer is a chair to sit on
through the night, Garber-Conrad explained.

Dozens of homeless people are sleeping on the streets and he said he
is worried some may freeze to death this winter. There are no rumours
Edmonton will get provincial funding this winter for the kind of
expansion Calgary just got, Garber-Conrad said.

A coalition of community groups is working to help the homeless people
who live around Whyte Avenue, by hiring outreach worker Terry Kettleson.

There were roughly 75 homeless people around Whyte before the summer
but Kettleson said she has found affordable housing for about 15 and a
group of churches in the area will likely provide emergency shelter on
cold nights as they did last year.

About 35 of the homeless people sleep on the streets around Whyte
Avenue and the rest cross the river and sleep in the homeless
shelters, Kettleson said. Some avoid the inner-city shelters because
it's a rough area. Others stay away because they don't want to be
tempted by the drugs available in the inner city.

Jan Berkowski, housing spokeswoman for the provincial government, said
the government is working on an emergency winter contingency plan but
is not yet ready to make an announcement. Last year, Edmonton's LRT
stations provided emergency shelter to homeless people on the coldest
winter nights.