Dozens seek overnight shelter in heated LRT stations as temperatures plummet
Lydia Neufeld | CBC News | Posted: December 12, 2016 8:36 PM | Last Updated: December 12, 2016
'I think people not freezing on the streets is our main goal here,' says city transit boss
As temperatures plunged over the weekend, dozens of homeless Edmontonians took refuge in heated LRT stations around the city.
The stations are usually locked between 1:30 a.m. and 5 a.m., but city officials made the decision late last week to keep them open.
"I think it went really well," said Eddie Robar, branch manager, Edmonton Transit System.
Fifty people sought shelter in the stations on Friday night and 57 on Saturday night, Robar said.
There were only a few people at each of the stations with the biggest group, about a dozen, at the MacEwan LRT station.
Temperatures over the weekend dropped to around –23 C, and felt like –34 C in the wind.
Robar's department is making it an official policy to now open stations overnight every time freezing temperatures and wind combine to make it feel colder than –20 C.
"The health and safety of all of our citizens in the city is important to us," Robar said Monday.
"With the extreme cold temperatures we've had in the past couple of weeks it just makes sense when we have those assets available to us to be able to shelter people."
Security was present at all of the stations that were left unlocked.
The city received some comments about litter in the stations, and during debriefing sessions Monday, staff will look at how to deal with that in future, he said.
"I think people not freezing on the streets is our main goal here and I think we succeeded in that," added Robar. "Hopefully we gave somebody at least a warmer place to sleep in the night."