Shelter loses 130 beds as sports centre reopens
Edmonton’s homeless shelter system is scrambling to find space now that Kinsmen Sports Centre has reverted back to recreational use, clearing out the 180 overnight beds set up early on in the COVID -19 pandemic.
The temporary overnight shelter has been running out of Kinsmen since late-march.
With rec centres allowed to reopen as part of the province’s Stage 2 relaunch, The Mustard Seed pulled the beds out of Kinsmen on Monday morning, relocating to a church just off Whyte Avenue. But there’s only room for 50 beds there.
Kris Knutson, Mustard Seed director of programs, said the agency is calling on the city to help find
a larger space so everyone has somewhere warm to go when bad weather hits.
With the new site operating with 130 fewer beds, Knutson said some in need of shelter have to be turned away and referred to other sites. It reached full capacity by 11 p.m. Monday night.
“We need to be talking October, November right now and say what’s the plan for when things get cold and people really need shelter? So we don’t want that to get lost in just trying to find something for the right now,” he told Postmedia earlier this week.
“One of the big questions we’ve seen as a sector is where do we find space for people? Especially amidst the new protocols around social distancing. We’re hardpressed to find space as big and open as the Kinsmen centre.”
The city decided to reactivate the Kinsmen rec centre and is also in the process of reverting the Expo Centre back to its regular functions, with the turnover date set for July 31.
Typically used for large events and conventions, the Expo Centre is currently being used as a day drop-in space for homeless Edmontonians as well as an overnight shelter for those experiencing COVID -19 symptoms and have nowhere else to isolate. More than 750 residents accessed services at the drop-in site on one day and 21 people remain in the isolation shelter as of Wednesday.
Downtown Ward 6 Coun. Scott Mckeen said he thinks these temporary shelters are being deactivated too soon as the virus continues to spread. He said the buildings currently being used have proven to be the right size for distancing and it doesn’t make sense to leave them and look for new sites.
“I think this is really premature, I think we don’t know what the coming months hold for us yet,” he said. “I’m deeply, deeply concerned.”
Homeward Trust, the social agency overseeing the city’s shelters, is working with the city to find additional larger buildings that could be needed for quite some time, as long as physical distancing requirements remain in place.
“Right now, we’re in a gap where we don’t have enough of a contingency plan if anything should happen,” said Homeward Trust CEO Susan Mcgee, if a COVID -19 outbreak forces a shelter to close. “We need more space than we might have in other seasons.”
Numbers from Homeward Trust show the shelters now have a total of 575 beds and on Monday night had 279 residents using them. This was down from 463 the night before when the Kinsmen was still open.
There is currently no plan in place for a new day-use site as the temporary operations wind down. The Boyle Street Community Services space will only be able to accommodate up to 50 people at a time. Most public buildings such as libraries and city hall remain closed.
Finding homeless residents housing hasn’t slowed down during the pandemic, Mcgee said, with 475 people housed between midmarch and mid-may, more than in the same time frame last year.