P.E.I. gives $20K to reopen men's shelter

The P.E.I. government is contributing $20,000 to help re-open the province's only homeless shelter for men.

Charlottetown's Bedford MacDonald House has been closed since June.

The Salvation Army was supposed to take over the operation butrecently backed outbecause of concerns about structural repairs.

A volunteer board has vowed to reopen the shelter, which was able to house eight men per night.

Community services minister Valerie Docherty said the one-time contribution from government will help make that happen.

"As a Liberal government we're very socially minded," said Docherty."In this particular case, there was a situation that a private organization has a bit of financial difficulty and we felt that the one time fund of $20,000 would give them what they needed in order to reopen Bedford MacDonald House."

Docherty said the board of the house now has the money and it expects to reopen the shelter in about a week.