The Marshall House Emergency Homeless Shelter will be closing its doors early next year.
Wood Buffalo Housing announced on Friday the building will stop serving clients on January 31 due to a lack of funding from the province.
WBH says they were notified by the GoA they would no longer receive funds based on the fact they haven’t been operating at full capacity over the past few years.
“We were extremely saddened to hear the news, but not entirely surprised,” said Henry Hunter, President and CEO of WBH, in a release.
“We have been fighting to have the funding renewed every year since the wildfire, and after seeing the budget and being involved in conversations with our local MLA, we saw the writing on the wall.”
Nine full-time staff will be affected by the closure.
WBH also plans on meeting with the tenants who live on the second and third floors over the next week.
“Unfortunately we will not be able to maintain the operating costs based on the small amount of rent we receive from the tenants on the other two floors,” added Hunter.
“The Province has advised that they will help us explore options for the Marshall House building once the shelter is closed.”
The Salvation Army shelter is being expanded so people can still access services when Marshall House closes.
