One evening this fall, Chong said they counted 325 people who came to access their services. The Mission Hall has an indoor capacity of 60 people
On average the Refuge Mission Hall, a soup kitchen located in Downtown Edmonton, serves 200 people a night.
An increase in homeless people is stretching their services and with each year the non-profit Christian organization sees more vulnerable people on the street, especially women. Colin Chong, president of the Refuge Mission Foundation, has worked in the sector for more than 20 years and for the past six years has been president of the organization, which remains open 365 days a year.
Every evening he sees more and more women accessing their services and some of them do not want to go to shelters.
“What I see in the evening, breaks my heart,” said Chong.
“We have women that are obviously out on the street and they, for whatever reason, don’t want to go into a shelter. That is not a good situation. We see (some say they) feel safer or they have more freedom outside.”
Capacity for 60 people indoors
One evening this fall, Chong said the hall counted 325 people who came to access their services. The hall has an indoor capacity of 60 people.
The soup kitchen opens its doors at 5:30 p.m. and will often close at 8:30 p.m. providing vegetable soup and sandwiches with food mainly provided by the Edmonton Food Bank to those who need it. But some evenings they’ll remain open for longer for those who might need it.
Chong said the organization is strictly volunteer-based and has around 40 to 50 volunteers who help with the evening operations. The hall also has a clothing closet where they provide access to coats, sweaters, and necessities. As the weather continues to drop, he said they are in more need of blankets and winter clothing.
“(Everything is from) donations. We have things coming from thrift shops or other people just dropping them by. We’ve got spare coats. Blankets are a little bit of a problem because we have such a demand for them right now, and every night we go through all our blankets,” Chong said.
Urge for more supportive housing
According to Homeward Trust’s By Name List, which tracks people in the system by their name and birthday, organized by sector, there are 4,697 homeless people in Edmonton as of September.
On Oct. 11, Chong penned a letter to the province and the city proposing a housing strategy that would provide both semi-permanent and permanent housing to homeless people. He said he wanted to form a partnership that would look to provide an alternative for people who are difficult to house outside of shelters.
“People that get banned from places (like shelters) … can still come (to the mission hall). We have a safety net underneath the safety net, so we are dealing with the people that can’t really go anywhere else, and they also have trouble going into the shelters, which is kind of where this whole focus was about when I sent out that letter,” Chong said.
While he hasn’t received a response, his organization is continuing with its own project to build a six-bedroom house that would provide housing to 10-12 people in the property next door to the soup kitchen.
The house is still under construction, with funding still needed to finish the project, but when it is completed Chong said it will be open to men who need it.