With Moose Jaw and the surrounding area under an extreme cold weather warning, concerns begin to come up about the homeless population in the city.

Just over a year ago, Moose Jaw Pride opened a daytime Warming Place at 345 Main St. N. in the space they share with their Rainbow Retro Thrift Shop. This warming centre is open to everyone and offers free hot coffee, snacks, free winter clothing, personal hygiene kits, books, and phone and internet access. They work closely with other agencies, including the John Howard Society, to find shelter for people, but, when they close their doors in the evening, people have nowhere to go. The Warming Place accepts donations of food and winter clothing, and the Rainbow Retro Thrift Shop accepts donated clothing for resale.

Souls Harbour Riverside Mission operates a Men's Emergency Shelter in Moose Jaw for ten men each night. Often, men are turned away with no place to sleep.

These groups are doing the best they can in coordinating their efforts, however, there are still people who are homeless and have slipped through the cracks. There are no beds for homeless women in the city to sleep at night. Mayor Clive Tolley said he would like the City of Moose Jaw to provide leadership by pulling the involved non-profit groups together to conduct a needs assessment that will identify the gaps in services and help to create remedies to address these gaps.

The issue of homelessness has come up at City Hall in the past, but the issue has been passed off to another level of government.

“Typically, the City of Moose Jaw says, well, it's not our responsibility. It is a provincial responsibility for social services for housing and health. But that does not cut it when people are in danger in this cold weather,” Tolley said.

One of those pitching in to help is the Ramada by Wyndham Hotel Manager Darlene Geib. She has been collaborating with John Howard Society Branch Manager Jody Oakes to find a solution for homelessness in the city. The John Howard Society’s My Place Program is actively helping homeless people connect to housing, income assistance, procuring identification, and accessing mental health and addictions services.

With the blessing of the owners of the Ramada Hotel, Geib has been taking in the homeless at the hotel to give them a warm place to stay and a hot meal.

“I was actually very overwhelmed. I had probably 100-plus different people that have offered, have helped and still waiting to continue helping until we can find some sort of solution,” Geib said.

Being in the far northeast corner of the city, the hotel is not exactly in the best location for the homeless, but Geib said she has had help transporting people who need warm shelter this winter.

“We've had taxi services be able to bring them up and as well I've gone to the aid and picked up people and made sure they were brought up here and working with our local city police as well. They know that if there's somebody out there, I'm not going to refuse them,” she said.

Geib added that donations are welcome, whether it is warm jackets, socks or a sleeping bag, anything they can take with them to stay warm.

If you know of anyone who is out in the cold and has nowhere to go, you can call the Ramada Hotel at (306) 693-3050 and ask for Darlene. You can also call the Moose Jaw Police Service and they will help that person find shelter.