Whitehorse shelter adds more sleeping spaces

The Yukon government is making good on an election promise to create more emergency shelter beds in Whitehorse.

During last fall's election, the Yukon Party said it would expand or replace the current shelter. While a new shelter is a long way off, the Salvation Army is doing what it can to accommodate the increasing number of people seeking its services.

During the day, the Sally Ann dishes out hot meals — about 5,000 a month. At night, the 14 beds are allotted on a first-come, first-serve basis —and they're always full.

So the shelter recently began setting out sleeping mats on the floor of the soup kitchen as well.

The shelter has been putting out six mats. Now, the Yukon government has bought 10 more.

Previously, people were only allowed to sleep sitting up at the tables. Now at least some can lay down with a blanket.

"The beds are gone by 9:30," said Richard Gage, a client at the shelter. "Usually then there’s five or six mats and those are taken in a hurry, too, and it’s not good to sleep on the chairs. You'd have to try it to know what I'm talking about.

"When its 30, 40 below, you're thankful for anything you have in here. You’d gladly sleep on the table."

But some women are leery of sleeping in a common area with men.

"Everybody needs a place to go, it's just that sometimes I don't feel like I can be safe because of the alcohol that's going and it makes me nervous when people are drinking and sometimes I get really kinda anxiety attack," said Melaine Johns, another Salvation Army client.

Salvation Army Capt. Jeff Howard said he is happy for the support but he's even more encouraged at the longer-term picture.

He's in discussions with the government about a new or expanded shelter.

"We're hoping not just more space but also more things that we can do you know, during the day, if there's programming, if there's lifestyle coaching, but nothing set in stone just yet. We're working on it and we're pretty excited from our side at least."