Record summer attendance at Edmonton homeless shelter

A normal summer would mean about 300 to 400 people accessing the shelter each night, according to the manager of homeless programs at the Hope Mission.

A homeless shelter in downtown Edmonton says it experienced record attendance in June.

Hope Mission said it hosted an average of 663 people per night, with June 19 being the busiest with 848 people.

“Usually in summers we’re used to seeing those numbers drop down a little bit, but this year they’ve stayed pretty consistently high,” said Tim Pasma, senior manager of homeless programs at Hope Mission.

A month later, demand for shelter space is still high, according to Hope Mission – over 700 people slept in the shelter Monday night.

A normal summer would mean about 300 to 400 people accessing the shelter each night, Pasma explained.

While part of the spike is due to a long spate of cold, rainy weather in June, the trend has been “lengthy,” Pasma said.

“We just have more people experiencing homelessness in our city right now so that’s a big part of the challenge that we face,” he said. “There’s a lot of people struggling right now.”

As a result, the shelter is running low on donations like men’s socks and underwear and women’s clothing.