More Than A Number | Part 4: The heavy door, the helping hands

Cory Dixon, giving advisor with Hope Mission, has that fact reinforced daily, meeting new faces that come through the heavy doors of the emergency homeless shelter.

The doors are heavy, both literally and figuratively.

Hope Mission took over operations of the shelter from Safe Harbour on April 1 of this year.

Cory Dixon, giving advisor for Hope Mission. (Image Credit: rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

The facility can serve roughly 200 people and has about 200 mats in reserve should additional capacity be needed during colder weather or other urgent scenarios.

No visitor has a time limit on their stay at the 24/7 shelter, as long as they remain respectful of staff and their peers. There are even storage bins for each person’s belongings that get stowed in a secured area.

Most importantly, three meals are served each day, at an estimated cost of $2.70 per meal.

Dixon says it’s easy to be ignorant about how people actually end up at the shelter.

“It’s sometimes a wrong decision, sometimes a decision made for them, not having family members… there’s a lot of reasons why someone may end up here,” he says.

“Sometimes it’s bad luck too. One of the gentlemen I’ve talked to here, he lost his home in a fire. No family here. So this is his temporary spot until he’s back on his feet. It’s not as simple as what, I think, a lot of people think it is.”

Dixon knows the shelter can be a gristly locale.

(Image Credit: rdnewsNOW)

It certainly makes sense that it would be, given the way people are kicked when they’re down – with the garbage, spit and drive-by insults they endure.

“You do see hope. I absolutely see people looking out for each other,” he says.

“One of the greatest sounds when I walk in every morning is hearing people snoring. You’re comfortable if you’re snoring and lying down, right? You’re in a warm bed.”

And that’s just not something every person experiencing homelessness can procure on a nightly basis.

A BURNING DESIRE TO HELP

If you ask Dixon, most, if not all, the people staying at the shelter want to get back to being productive members of society.

A critical part of Hope Mission’s undertaking is getting people into housing; in fact, it is priority numero uno.

But it is also a massive challenge given a low housing supply and soaring rent.

“We have people in the building that work for Hope Mission whose sole job is to help coordinate housing,” Dixon shares.

(Image Credit: rdnewsNOW)

“People are working here who choose to be here; they choose to help the most vulnerable. The people who work here are amazing, and I can’t say enough about that.”

Dixon also shared a sincere hope on the organization’s behalf that the planned Project Nexus will be a resounding success, providing people with services all in one place.

But he isn’t hearing many of the shelter users talk about it.

“Yeah, not much. A lot of folks [here] think the services need to be near downtown to access them. The hope is to have those in one building, so I think that’s amazing.”

BRINGING PEOPLE UP

Dixon has been at this for six months, and prior worked in a totally different field.

He’s been struck by the commitment of staff to do their very best for the people coming through those heavy doors.

“People who are here are at their lowest of lows, probably most of the time. They’re staying in an emergency shelter, after all,” he says.

“We call [what we do here] a continuum of care. First things first: hope begins with a meal, and that’s the essential thing. From there, it’s that continuum, and hopefully getting someone to exit homelessness.”

At day’s end, Dixon knows there are issues surrounding the shelter, and he knows it can appear rough. He knows too there are legitimate reasons for people and property owners in the vicinity to have gripes.

Dixon also knows it isn’t easy for people to understand the plight because most have likely never walked, nor will they ever, a kilometre in a shelter user’s proverbial shoes.

But he urges us to remember this: “These are daughters, these are sons, these are grandmas… these are people.”

—

To learn more about how you can contribute to the Hope Mission emergency homeless shelter in Red Deer, visit hopemission.com or call them at 587-819-0015.

Red Deer’s latest count of those experiencing homelessness occurred earlier this month. The final tally in 2025 was 645 people; however, it’s important to keep in mind that these counts represent one-day snapshots and do not represent the precise number of people out there. (READ MORE)

Three Red Deer agencies are uniting to raise funds for causes strongly tied to homelessness. (READ MORE & READ MORE)

by Josh Hall

More Than A Number | Part 4: The heavy door, the helping hands

A BURNING DESIRE TO HELP

BRINGING PEOPLE UP

What's Trending