Warming shelter expands hours as bitter cold sweeps into Winnipeg

A Winnipeg warming shelter is throwing its operating hours out the window, at least temporarily, to make sure the city's most vulnerable people have a place to go as the temperature plummets.

"We will certainly be open all day for people to be warm. There won't be any gap in our services today," said Glynis Quinn, executive director of 1JustCity, which operates an emergency warming centre, Just a Warm Sleep, on Pulford Street in Osborne Village. 

Typically, Just a Warm Sleep opens for intake from 8-10 p.m., but faced with the current bitter cold, the doors are staying unlocked.

"We'll bring staff in and have people stay warm all day," Quinn told CBC Manitoba Information Radio host Marcy Markusa.

Winnipeg had an overnight low of –26 C from Monday night into Tuesday, with a wind chill of –35. The high for Tuesday is expected to be –18 C before it plummets to –35 C overnight with a wind chill of –45.

The normal temperature for this time of year is a high of –8 C and overnight low of –18 C.

Just a Warm Sleep has space for 30 people — on mats spread out on the floor — and has been at capacity pretty much every night since opening for the season in November.

Staff have also been bringing people into the lobby area to warm up, but that space is even more limited, so 1JustCity has been working with other shelters in the city to find room for its clients.

Being open longer on Tuesday will not only allow people the chance to escape from the dangerous cold, it will give staff more time to work with those who are experiencing homelessness, allowing them to determine particular needs and find a bed through the shelter network, Quinn said.

1JustCity also operates three drop-in centres — in West Broadway, the West End and the Osborne Village Pulford location — where people can get warm meals or emergency food kits at certain times of the day.

Quinn will meet with the staff at the West Broadway (222 Furby St.) and West End (365 McGee St.) sites to see what can be done in those neighbourhoods to extend services.

"We will certainly be avoiding people lining up today and bringing them in to warm up. West Broadway will act as a warming space, and I am sure West End will do the same," she said in an email.

"We will offer hot drinks and bannock until lunch/dinner is served."

In the grand scheme of things, those are just Band-Aid solutions when the temperatures are at their worst. To really make a difference, governments need to step up, Quinn said.

There is a desperate need for more affordable housing and initiatives to deal with poverty and mental health, but in the meantime, to get through winter, Quinn would like to see the city create a series of warming centres.

"With the shelters at capacity, we need somewhere else for people to go and stay warm. Our shelters are not going to contain everyone because there's thousands of people who are homeless out there and this is just too cold," she said.

Ideally, community centres could be turned into warming centres, where staff from the city's shelter network could get to them and deliver the supplies and supports they need.

As for supplies, 1JustCity is in need of hand warmers, long underwear, mitts and gloves and coffee, Quinn said.

If anyone has those items to give, they can be dropped off at 107 Pulford St.

Extreme cold in Manitoba

While Winnipeg is cold, it has managed to dodge the most frigid temperatures that have descended in the province.

An extreme cold warning has been issued for nearly the entire northern third of the province, where wind chill values are expected to fall between –45 and –50 on Tuesday.

The warning area includes Tadoule Lake, Brochet, Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids, Pukatawagan, Thompson, Nelson House, Split Lake, Gillam and Shamattawa.

The extreme wind chills may ease up in the afternoon but they are expected to return to some regions Tuesday night.

Another extreme cold warning is in place farther south, in the Swan River-Duck Mountain-Porcupine Provincial Forest region.

The coldest wind chill values are forecast to be –40 to –45.

As in the north, the wind chills will become more moderate later in the morning but snap back in the evening and the "warnings will likely need to be expanded," Environment Canada's alert says.

Conditions will improve Wednesday as warmer air begins to move into the region.