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December 2, 2020

The COVID crisis is at the top of the news here in Edmonton. For the last two weeks, there have been 1000 new cases every day. Yesterday it was up to more than 1700. The total number of active cases in Alberta is now the highest in Canada.

COVID has finally hit the homeless community here. The temporary homeless shelters set up in the early stages of the crisis were closed in the summer, and large homeless encampments quickly grew up.

Finally, with the onset of winter these camps were shut down, and new shelters were opened, including one at the Convention Centre.

Now there has been a large COVID outbreak there. As a result, overnight capacity has been cut in half. This means less shelter space for the nearly 2000 homeless in Edmonton. Hope Mission has also had an outbreak, as well the recently setup shelter at the Commonwealth Stadium.

Here at Marian Centre, we continue serving bag lunches in the courtyard and meeting various clothing requests.

A friend has made a small shelter for sandwich distribution—a metal frame with a tarp and a heater for really cold days.

We had begun having a small number of volunteers coming to help, no more than 2 or 3 at a time, and they were delighted to do so. Now with new restrictions we’re cutting back on that. We are continually amazed by the generosity of our friends, as they keep coming by with donations, make sandwiches, and call to see what they can do to help.