Former Brick store to house Calgary's homeless this winter

A former Calgary furniture store will become an emergency homeless shelter with300 beds, city officials announced Friday.

The empty Brick building on 16th Avenuein the northeast part of the citywill be renovated and operate as a shelter that will run from December to March.

Both men and women will be housed at the shelter, which will be run by an organization called the Mustard Seed.

"There's an amazing turnoverof people through the shelter system, so that gives us an opportunity to connect with an additional 3,000 people," said Floyd Perras, the senior operations officer for the Mustard Seed.

The clientswill be pre-screened and will be bused in and out of the neighbourhood, he said.

This weekend, city staff will go door-to-door to discuss the plan, looking for approval from residents.

Building set to be demolished

The bright red, city-owned building is set to be demolished in April to make way for the widening of the street, which is part of the Trans-Canada Highway.

The province announced Friday that $1 million had been set asidefor emergency care for Calgary'shomeless. The City of Calgary has put up $500,000, but will ask the province to repay the cash.

Calgary Alderman Andre Chabot says he's worried the city will never get that money back.

"It's not our responsibility, but we're not prepared to quibble about it right now. To make sure we provide this service, we're stepping up, we're doing it and looking for reimbursement somewhere down the road."

Still hunting for shelter for families

Another aid organization, Inn from the Cold, will be given money to house an additional 10 to 15 homeless families. The organizationsays it isalready housing 100 family members each night, a 40 per cent increase over the same timelast year.

Inn from the Cold is working with the public school board to find potential sites to house the extra families.

The province gave the organization an extra $100,000 earlier this fall to help with the influx.

Organizations that work with the homeless say there aren't enough shelter beds in Calgary because of the number of people flooding into the city to look for work.

The province's super-heated economy has sent housing prices soaring and the rental vacancy rate has dropped so low that even some people with full-time jobs have been sleeping in their cars or on mats in shelters.