Homeless shelter sought for Rocky Mountain House

A group of community members has started work on bringing a homeless shelter to Rocky Mountain House.

Members of the working group include the Rocky Native Friendship Center, Mountain Rose Women’s Shelter, RCMP, Victims Services, the Rock Drop-in Center, and the Clearwater Regional Housing Foundation.

Officials say the homeless shelter would provide accommodations for men, women, and youth.

“We have done some research over the last 3-4 years, looking at the services that are needed in our community. So different groups have come together at different times and homelessness is one of the issues that continues to come up,” explains Cindy Easton with the Mountain Rose Women’s Shelter. “We know in rural Alberta the homeless population isn’t the same because they don’t sleep on park benches like they do in big cities.”

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Large cities like Calgary have various shelters and drop in centres for the people without homes to go to. No such resources are currently available in Rocky Mountain House.

Easton says there are about 68 homeless individuals in the Rocky area, not including First Nations.

“The terminology used is they are ‘vicariously housed,’ meaning they are couch surfing, or they’re living in a tent down by the river, or they’re going to churches, churches put them up,” says Easton. “So they’re not seen on the street, you could walk by them on the street at noon and you wouldn’t know that they’re homeless.”

The community group is currently in talks with both Town and County council for funding and support for the future homeless shelter.

“We need it two years ago,” Easton implored.