Record-high numbers spark shelter expansion in Edmonton

Hope Mission says it will expand its shelter capacity as the need for overnight shelter space is reaching a new high.

Hope Mission says it plans to expand its shelter capacity in the city after seeing a new all-time high need for overnight spaces.

The non-profit reported sheltering 1,401 people in Edmonton on Thursday night – well over its citywide capacity of 990 overnight spaces, plus 50 surge spaces.

“Despite adding two new shelters outside the downtown core in the last two years, the need in Edmonton has grown beyond our current capacity,” said Tim Pasma, senior director, in a statement on the Hope Mission website.

The openings of the Karis Centre in 2023 and CarePoint Wellness Centre in 2024 added 235 year-round spaces after Hope Mission shelters broke a 1,000-person threshold only two years ago. Pasma said the charity was seeing new records “year after year.”

On Thursday night, CarePoint sheltered 187 in a space originally meant for 120 people.

Hope Mission is now turning CarePoint’s health and housing hub into an overnight shelter space with 50 extra emergency sleeping mats. The repurposed hub will also become an additional warming area during the day.

The emergency protocol is expected to stay in place until the end of March, but Pasma said extended periods of extreme cold mean better solutions are needed.

“What we really need is additional shelter space – both to bring people in from the cold and to connect them with supports,” he said.

The City of Edmonton started an extreme weather response plan on Wednesday, meaning all shelters in the city have expanded their hours and an additional shelter shuttle bus is running to take people to open spaces.