62 Londoners stayed at the emergency shelter at a community centre last night

If he hadn't slept on a cot in the gymnasium of a London community centre last night, 39-year-old Eric Rook would have spent his Tuesday night trying to huddle in doorways along Dundas and Richmond streets.

Instead, Rook got some relief after the city opened up an emergency warming centre at the Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre, where 62 people spent the night on Tuesday. The emergency shelter will stay open until at least Friday, said deputy city manager Kevin Dickins, who is in charge of homeless prevention in London.

"It was good. They had pizza and drinks like pop and juice boxes, coffee and donuts," said Rook. "It really sucks being outside. I don't like it too much."

But setting up emergency cots to prevent people from freezing to death while sleeping outside isn't a sustainable way to help Londoners in crisis, Dickins said.

"Funding for this comes out of a different part of the budget but there's a cost to this. We're pulling staff from multiple departments out of their day-to-day work for extended periods of time. It's not a model that's sustainable," he said.

Mayor Josh Morgan and other municipal leaders across Ontario have called on the provincial government to up its funding because cities don't have the resources to help people trying to survive on the street.

The region's first cold weather alert happened last week and lasted for two days. This week, an extreme weather warning began on Monday morning, with an Arctic air mass bringing bitterly cold wind chills to the area. It felt like -32 degrees Celsius overnight, Environment Canada said.

"I haven't slept in the same place twice. I was looking around for where to go last night, and they told me about this shelter, so I came here," said London Aaron Bourget, who said he couldn't really sleep on his cot because of the unfamiliar surroundings but liked being out of the cold.

"It was quiet. It was warm. I can't complain about any of it," he said. "There's not enough places like this. Today, I'm going to go outside as little as possible. I'm trying to avoid the cold weather, but I heard it's going to be cold again tonight, so I'll try to figure out where to go. I'll probably end up here."

Cold weather alerts mean shelters can open more beds and chairs for people to come inside. About 50 such extra beds have been open this week, Dickins said, but it's not enough. Local agencies say that there are about 320 people sleeping outside right now.

Some Londoners showed up with warm clothing and money donations at the Carling centre, wanting to help. Community centre activities were cancelled, and showers were opened up for those who needed to get clean, Dickins said.

"They have clothes for us, blankets, food. It was nice because you have to do what you can to keep warm," said Josh Stoltenhoff.

"It's pretty hard. There's very limited access to anything. Today, I'm going to hang out at the Ark (Aid Mission), but that doesn't open until 1 p.m."