The City of Edmonton will open the Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre to those in need of emergency shelter during extreme cold weather, officials announced Tuesday.
Last year, the city used downtown LRT stations during extreme conditions while it looked for a better option.
The rec centre is centrally located near an LRT station and a bus station, is heated and has hygiene facilities, Christel Kjenner, the city’s director of housing and homelessness, said at a news conference.
“Although the LRT stations have served as a useful stop-gap measure, we found them to be relatively insufficient, just because they’re not actually heated, they don’t have good access to basic hygiene facilities like washrooms or showers.”
Those in need of shelter will be bussed from downtown to stay at the Commonwealth field house when the emergency protocol is activated. Officials are planning for a capacity of 36 based on historical trends.
The decision to open additional shelter spaces will be based on a combination of factors, including the temperature and capacity at existing shelters.
“We look at encouraging people to use those facilities first,” Kjenner said. “But if they run up against capacity issues because more people are seeking shelter inside and are no longer able to accommodate the need, then that’s when we’ll activate our protocol.”
The temperature is expected to plummet later this week, with the Environment Canada forecast calling for a high of -19 C on Saturday and an overnight low of -28 C. Sunday is forecast to be even colder.
The city’s winter emergency response includes other measures to ensure people in need of shelter during cold weather have a place to go around-the-clock. Homeward Trust Edmonton CEO Susan McGee said that includes extending hours at some shelters and lifting bans to ensure people with troubled histories are not denied services.
McGee said the city has seen a reduction in the number of homeless people using shelters on a regular basis. Since 2009, chronic homelessness had dropped by 43 per cent.
McGee said the Herb Jamieson Centre, a shelter for homeless men at 10014 105A Ave., had recently closed but most of the bunk beds have been moved to the main shelter at Hope Mission, a few blocks away.