Limited room at the inn
Posted Dec 26, 2011 9:52 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A disturbing trend emerged over Christmas at Calgary’s women’s shelters.
Many are near full capacity.
At the YWCA’s Sheriff King shelter, which last year had 10 women and children over Christmas, the centre put up 34 people this past Friday. Meantime at the Y’s Mary Dover shelter, there were 98 clients compared to 72 a year ago.
The YWCA’s Director of Family Violence Prevention program, Jean Dunbar, tells the Calgary Herald the high numbers are unusual because most women will stick it out during the holidays. It’s usually the week after Christmas that the shelters see the numbers climb.
Volunteers at the Sheriff King centre were scrambling on Friday, trying to make sure that there was a gift for each child under the shelter’s Christmas tree as well as tripling the number of Christmas dinners being prepared.
