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Winter shelter for homeless faces loss of provincial funding

Red Deer’s winter shelter for the homeless only has provincial funding to operate for one more winter.

Red Deer’s winter shelter for the homeless only has provincial funding to operate for one more winter.

Alberta Housing and Urban Affairs will eliminate $110,000 in funding for Winter Inn as Red Deer continues work on programs to eliminate homelessness.

“As a community we really need to rally around and figure out how we’re going to meet that need for subsequent winters,” said Stacey Carmichael, director of housing with Central Alberta’s Safe Harbour Society for Health and Housing on Tuesday.

Winter Inn, staffed by Safe Harbour and run in rotation at local churches, is an overnight shelter for around 20 homeless people during the winter months.

“In all fairness, the provincial government is working towards housing homeless folks and not investing more into shelters,” Carmichael said.

“They are wondering because of all the plans to end homelessness why the communities need (shelters) anymore. Is that the most appropriate response to this issue?

“They are probably somewhat right.”

The province asked the community if it still needed Winter Inn for the 2011-12 winter. Red Deer said yes.

“We saw 270 different individuals last winter. That’s telling me we need the program.”

Winter Inn was developed to fill in the gaps in service to Red Deer’s homeless.

Safe Harbour’s other year-round homeless shelter, People’s Place, generally runs with 23 beds, and its detox mat program for people using drugs or alcohol has space for 20 people. It will continue to operate.

Red Deer Youth and Volunteer Centre will still run 49th Street Youth Shelter, which has eight beds.

The federal government has been funding the centre’s Youth Winter Inn, an overnight shelter for youth with addictions. The centre is applying for federal funding for the upcoming winter.

Central Alberta Women’s Emergency Shelter, with 36 beds, will also continue to run.

“We’ll never eliminate the need for shelters. We can reduce the time people spend in shelters and we can get them into shelters quicker, and we’re doing that, but we’re never going to eliminate the need for some kind of emergency response,” Carmichael said.

So far this spring, Safe Harbour has seen an increase in the use of homeless shelters with the annual closure of Winter Inn.

“A lot of the people we’re seeing are brand new people that we’ve never seen before. There is a high percentage of new people coming into town,” said Colleen Markus, director of emergency services at Safe Harbour.

People’s Place is running at its absolute capacity of 30 beds. The detox is running at capacity with 26 mats.

“Typically when we close the Winter Inn at the end of April, we see a spike for the next month. It’s the middle of June and we’re still turning people away.”

But overall there has been some decrease in annual shelter usage for Safe Harbour programs, she said.

Rose Hatfield, program manager of 49th Youth Shelter and Youth Winter Inn, said shelter occupancy remains at close to 100 per cent but there’s been a slight drop in youth using the winter program.

It was the second season for the Youth Winter Inn. Services were expanded last year to include a community worker who was to meet with the youth, take them to appointments and try to get them in touch with community resources.

szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com