City homeless shelters meet demand in cold snap

Calgary's homeless shelters passed the first major cold snap this fall with room to spare as the wind chill dipped to –25.

Both the Calgary Drop-In Centre and the Mustard Seed Street Ministry reported busy nights at their shelters on Monday but said no one was turned away.

Officials said there should be enough beds to accommodate Calgary's estimated 3,500 homeless people this year with the opening of an emergency shelter in the Foothills Industrial Park last week.

The Mustard Seed's Diana Schwenk said the southeast shelter had 65 empty beds on Monday night and could create more spots if necessary.

"We can have 370 in the Foothills shelter and if it got really cold and there was still people coming beyond that number, we can create extra space in the dining room area in an emergency situation," said Diana Schwenk of the Mustard Seed.

Louise Gallagher of the Calgary Drop-In Centre said even though it looks like city shelters will be able to meet the demand, the city still needs more drug and alcohol treatment spots and affordable housing.