30,000 people say we need the Moss Park armoury ASAP. It's a shelter disaster.

Since the December 6 City Council vote to not open the armouries, the city's bandaid measures have proven to be totally inadequate and incompetent. *Shelters remain full and crowding is worse thanks to the Mayor's decision to squeeze more people into them. *Family shelters report families with kids now sleeping in offices and program rooms that were never meant to sleep people. *Over 500 people (and the number will only grow) now sleep in what are not real shelters and are mostly on the floor. *The 24 hour overnight drop-ins are swamped and unable to meet people's need for mats, blankets, food. People sprawl on floors or sleep in chairs. *At two of the 24 hour sites for women, a woman will get a reclining chair to sleep in only if she wins a lottery for a chair space. *The Better Living Centre at the CNE, the latest site to come on line, will sleep only 110 people in a 200,000 square foot facility. The city just 'forgot' to tell people including community agencies desperate for shelter for their people that the centre was ready to take more than 20. *Tonight Central Intake reports everything is full and it's -24C with windchill. Below is an article by an experienced front-line worker Doug Johnson and a tape of his call to Central Intake a few nights ago. The Better Living Centre which had over 40 cots that night is not even offered.