It's cold as, well, Alberta, outside and it's going to continue to be cold for several months. 

What then, does one do when they see a person living outside, walking alone late at night without proper clothing, or realizes a person is sleeping in the cold?

"Go up and ensure that person is breathing, first and foremost," said Kevin Cunningham of Turning Point.  "Go up, say hello, introduce yourself and ask if they're doing okay. If they aren't responsive, try a shoulder rub or even a pain stimulus test if they're still unresponsive." 

A pain stimulus test refers to, for example, pushing down on a person's fingernail with your own nail. It is not an aggressive action, it's something small to see if you can get a non-responsive person to wake up. 

"If there's no response, that becomes a medical emergency and it's time to call 911," he said. Cunningham added that if there is a Naloxone kit nearby, and you are comfortable using it, go into the Naloxone response in case the person has overdosed. 

"It's always hard to determine the cause of the medical emergency, but if someone is non-responsive, at that point, it's a medical emergency and you need to call for help."

Agencies in Red Deer that work with street-involved people or people experiencing homelessness are always in need in of good quality winter clothes, new or gently used. That includes warm jackets, snowpants, warm shoes, toques, socks and warm gloves. 

The current agencies available in Red Deer to help people in need of housing are Youth HQ, Central Alberta Women's Emergency Shelter, Safe Harbour, and The Mustard Seed. Each of these agencies has a limited number of vacancies and criteria for their admission but guiding people towards these agencies could save their life if they need immediate shelter.

Statistics from the City of Red Deer website show that the Safe Harbour Warming Centre, a daytime use program, had "536 unique clients [who] visited the Winter Warming Centre 13,148 times in the 2017/2018 winter months."

Kath Hoffman, Executive Director of Safe Harbour said it's appreciated that people become concerned in the winter, but there is a bigger problem at hand - the need for a permanent shelter in the City of Red Deer. 

"If you're seeing people out in the cold, you probably will call RCMP or an ambulance, depending on their condition. Our Outreach program is available throughout the day, but Turning Point's Nightreach team is out fairly late, and they might be able to provide some immediate assistance," she said, adding that typically, if police find a person sleeping rough, they will bring them to Safe Harbour or the Mustard Seed, depending on their needs. 

"We are doing our best to get everybody in, as you can imagine. We're working closely with the Mustard Seed, and the City has checked in to see if we're doing alright so far, and that's what we're doing: we're just doing all right so far," she said. 

Hoffman said these problems come up every year and the biggest piece lacking in getting people out of the cold is a permanent shelter space. 

"We're so grateful to the people who are worrying about everybody out in the cold. Nobody wants to see people outside any longer than they have to be, but we need a real facility that would let us not worry about this anymore."

She said they need the resources available for times of crisis, and winter conditions dipping between -20 and -40 absolutely qualify as times of crisis. 

Hoffman said she hopes people will come together and remember this need, even in summer months, and that a permanent shelter is built sooner rather than later.