The Safe Harbour Warming Centre continues to be a place of refuge for vulnerable citizens through the cold winter months, especially as temperatures continue to drop in the coming weeks.

Not only is it a physical place to get warm, clean up and maybe grab a snack, but, equally as important, it’s a social place where people can be safe and happy for a few hours. 

Traci Geroux is a woman experiencing homelessness in Red Deer who uses the warming centre nearly every day and said the service is necessary and appreciated. 

“All the staff is wonderful. If you need help with anything, they’ll help you as much as they can. If you need any connection, they’re always there to help you. Same with the front office at Safe Harbour and the Mats program as well,” Geroux said. 

“The nursing staff is right next door, so if you’re having problems with your health, they have the equipment and they will help you and make sure you’re attended to.”

Colleen Markus, Shelter Services Manager at Safe Harbour, said the warming centre started as a ‘temporary shelter’ five years ago as part of the Emergency Weather Response.

“It was for six months every year in order to get people out of the cold during the day. A year ago, we started operating it 24 hours. At this point, we have approximately 16 hours of drop-in and eight hours of shelter in the same building,” she explained. 

Markus said they made the decision based on the growing needs of the community, and the lack of a full-time warming shelter service. In a ten-day span at the end of November - well before the most recent freezing temperatures - she said they had to turn away 29 people overnight. 

Jeremy "Lucky" Fischer finds time to relax and work on his art while at the warming centre.

The day drop-in program allows a place for people to relax, have a cup of coffee, us the phone, play cards - basically, just enjoy social interaction for a few hours. Markus said the staff also help people make appointments, fill out applications, help get identification and connect visitors to other social or community services.

One of the most important pieces of the warming shelter is the connection between Safe Harbour staff and the clients they serve. It’s a place where stories are told, experiences are shared and relationships can be built. 

“We need to get to know people, to get to know their stories. We realize that everyone has a life. They have a mother and father and a family of sorts that they’ve grown up with. They have a history, and memories and achievements,” Markus said.  “So many of them have university educations. They’ve owned houses, they’ve owned businesses.”

 “When you hear people’s stories, that becomes real. You don’t look at the outside, you engage with the inside.” - Colleen Markus, Shelter Services Manager

Giroux said it’s a relief to be able to come to the warming centre and be treated as an equal human - something that doesn’t always happen on the streets. 

“There’s a lot of miscommunication. There’s people, it don’t matter, on either side, whether you’re housed or not housed - we’re getting a lot of the [blame]. What’s been happening out there, all the thefts and vandalism, that’s not helping us. We all have our own reasons why we’re out here, and maybe our own addictions but you can’t paint us all with the same brush because we’re not all the same,” she said. 

“It’s not fair to be humiliated. When you’re reading the papers or on facebook all the time, you’re looking at it like, “What?”," she said, adding she knows people have a right to their opinion, but wished they were more considerate over cruel.

“Until you live a day or even half a day in our shoes…,” she added with a sigh. “It’s hard out there. It’s not easy.”

Markus said some of the biggest problems facing the shelter right now is a lack of storage for people’s belongings and the lack of public washrooms available downtown. The warming centre has two bathrooms,  but over 100 people visit the centre each day and it’s simply not enough to keep up. 

Overall, the said Safe Harbour continues to do the best for clients with the services they have available, but says a permanent shelter is absolutely necessary for the future of Red Deer.