Homeless shelters close in Grande Prairie

Anorthern Alberta city is closing two temporary homeless shelters, saying funding has run out.

As campgrounds closed and winter set in last year, Grande Prairie set up two temporary shelters for families that couldn't find a place to live, putting trailers in an old fire hall garage and taking over a vacant office building.

DoneldaLaing, manager of Grande Prairie's family and community support services, said the money for the sheltersfrom the three levels of government has run out.

"We ran this as a temporary, emergencyshelter," she said.

"It's an office building and we would have to do renovations to run it on a long-term basis. The trailers in the garage were donated. We really don't have any other resources right now to be able to help families coming into the community who don't have a place to stay."

She said some of the more than adozen families that lived in the shelters are leaving Grande Prairie,while the rest havefound affordable housing in the city.

"We've had some families that have left the community because they couldn't find places to live, so I know one family did go back to Ontario, one went back to Edmonton."

Grande Prairie hasan extremely low vacancy rate, and Laing warned people need to do their homework before they show up expecting to be able to find a place to live.

The population of the region, about 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, was 71,868 last year, up 22 per cent from 58,787 in 2001.

Last fall, rents ran at about $2,000 for an average home,with most places asking for a damage deposit of $1,500.