Services helping Edmonton’s homeless during heat wave

Its one of the hottest areas in the city — downtown Edmonton is a concrete jungle is home to Edmonton’s most vulnerable.

“We certainly have that applied here where were expecting maybe a couple degrees warmer in the city centre,” said Justin Shelley, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

And while we often hear about the difficulties Edmonton’s houseless during winter cold snap, heat waves present a new challenge.

“I’m just trying to stay in shelters and stay where I can get hydrated and stuff,” said an Edmontonian.

It’s a little different then what you see during the winter, folks in downtown Edmonton are trying to escape the heat and organizations are trying to provide crucial services for the vulnerable all year round. 

“We’re seeing a significant uptick, especially this week as we move into the over 30 temperature range. We’re seeing more people at our doors, coming through our doors,” said Laurence Braun-Woodbury, the director of community development and advocacy at the Bissell Centre.

Support services across the city are providing those who need help some assitance. From supplying water, to providing sunscreen and hats, when the weather ramps up so does the support.

“We’re encouraging Edmontonians to look out for one another. One way to do that is to know the difference between heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Heat stroke is a call to 911 while heat exhaustion is a call to 211,” said Jonathan Harline, the assistant manager of communications at Boyle Street.

Around noon Wednesday, CityNews spoke with someone dealing with the heat, and they say the water fountains setup by the City are helping during these extreme periods, but feel there aren’t enough water fountains around the city for those who use them and need them.

“No there’s, we need way more. There’s like two million people here and there’s only like 15 water fountains around the city like. That’s not enough.”

The City of Edmonton has water botter filling stations in transit centres, as well as 27 temporary ones for the summer.