What's the summer been like at Kenora's makeshift temporary emergency shelter?

It's been a challenging summer for the people running thetemporary emergency shelter in Kenora, Ont.

The makeshift program, set up in the basement gym at Knox United Church, has been running since July 1, and serving between 15 and 18 people on an average night.

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That despite the fact that the space lacks many amenities, including showers, washing machines, dividersand bed frames.

"It was kind of challenging to get it up and running," said Dalaney Smith, who coordinates the emergency shelter program for theNe-Chee Friendship Centre, but "it's getting people off the streets, which is the most important thing."

It was never meant to be this way. The arrangements for the temporary emergency shelter were made as a last-ditch option to offer Kenora's homeless some sort of shelter over the summer months, after other plans fell apart.

Ne-Chee, which took over the shelter program when the city's previous shelter closed in June, had planned to move into a new permanent location, but they were unable to do so afterKenora city council voted down a necessary zoning bylaw.

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Over a month later, Ne-Chee and the Kenora District Services Board are still on the hunt for a new location, and the clock is ticking they have the space at Knox United until September.

For now, each evening, Smith's staff prepare for the rush of clients by dragging their supply of mats out onto the gym floor at Knox.

In the morning, the blankets are collected to be washed off site, and the mats are sprayed down, and then stacked in a neat pile in a corner of the gym, so that the space can be used for other activities.

The prospect of once again finding themselves without a spot to house people in the fall makes Smith nervous.

"I try not to even think about it because it makes me quite anxious," she said. "I'm hopeful, very hopeful, but by the same token [September] is approaching very, very quickly, and I'm not sure what will happen."

Despite the makeshift shelter, and the uncertainty, clients are coping well,she said.

"We've even had people come where there haven't been enough mats, it's been pouring rain ... and they will sleep on the floor, without a blanket, without a mat, on a rock-hard gym floor. And they're thankful."