Extreme cold alert hits Toronto

The city of Toronto has been issued an extreme cold weather alert to trigger additional homeless services as the temperature drops to 15 C overnight.

"Alerts are typically called in the morning for the coming overnight period so that community agencies have sufficient time to call in extra staff to provide enhanced services," a release from the city read Saturday.

Torontousually adds 172 shelter spaces during an extreme cold alert. Shelters will be asked to relax any current restrictions. If no beds are available, theymust allowclients to stay there until a bed can be found elsewhere.

At some drop-in-centres, TTC tokens are made available so people can get to other shelters.

The warning remains in effect until further notice.

The weather warning comes a day after men and women took to city hall toprotest the shortage of bedsin homeless shelters.

Brett Thomas knows where he will spend Saturday night with some peace of mind.

"I came last night and I got a bed here at Good Shepherd. As long as I'm here at 5:30 p.m. to keep my bed and thats the important thing," Thomas said.

There are 91 beds at the Good Shepherda shelter on Queen Street East where people can get a warm meal, sometimes clothing and a bed for the night.

WithSaturdays extreme cold temperatures, all the beds are likely to remain full.

Despite 172 new beds being added during the alert, many say there is still a vast shortage for Toronto's homeless.

Kenton Calbert, whohas stayedin shelters,says the Good Shepherd is always full.On cold nights, people have had to go elsewhere, or else would only haveto sleep on the floor.