The Out of the Cold Warming Centre is now open and is already seeing high demand.
One night saw 14 people use the overnight accommodations.
Brenda Witherspoon-Bedard of the District of Rainy River Services Board says they have never seen numbers this high so early into the season.
“Usually when we start, we have two people, maybe three. We have small numbers,” says Witherpoon-Bedard.
“The first night, we had 10. We’ve never had 10 like the first start.”
Witherspoon-Bedard says it is hard to say why numbers are high so early.
A possible link could be tied to a breakfast program started earlier this year.
It has been attracting 15 to 25 people each morning.
Witherspoon-Bedard says one day when 28 people showed up for breakfast, 10 people were at the warming centre.
Officials are watching the numbers to see if it is a trend they will have to contend with as the weather gets colder.
“We’re preparing for bigger numbers. Like, what can we do? How can we make this work? How can we stretch our budget? We’re working on it.”
“We’re going to kind of reflect, and we’ll see what December looks like because maybe it’ll look different.”
Witherspoon-Bedard says the good news is that a need is being met.
In 2023, there were 705 visits which was a 3 percent decrease from the year prior.
Forty percent of individuals used the centre more than once.
