When Cal Maskery walked out of the homeless shelter he runs during last week’s heat wave and found a man collapsed in front of his steps, he knew he had to step up to help
“He was sitting here with a bloody nose and he crashed on the sidewalk of exhaustion,” said Maskery.
“He fell and smashed his nose on the curb, and so we thought we need to make a decision before anyone else gets hurt or faints because of the heat”
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For the past week, Maskery has opened the doors of the Moncton-based Harvest House Atlantic at noon instead of 4 p.m., allowing people without a home to drop in to get a snack and some water, taking shelter from the sweltering heat.
“It is getting hot already and the humidex is going up and during that time people get exhausted,” he said.
“Being exposed to the sun for extended periods of time is just not safe for some people.”
Lisa Ryan runs an outreach program for the homeless in Moncton called YMCA Reconnect.
On Monday she was busy packing up water to deliver to people living on the street. She says people living in tent cities are especially vulnerable to heat exhaustion and heat stroke
“People in tents tend to not notice signs of heat stroke, so they will just generally fall asleep and we like to keep tabs on them and make sure they are hydrating and that they are not passed out,” said Ryan.
She says last week her outreach workers have helped several homeless people showing signs of heat stress. Fortunately, no one has needed medical attention and she is hoping that will be the case again today
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Maskery says his shelter will remain on extended hours as long as heat warnings are in effect.
This is the longest the shelter has ever had to be open for an extended period of time due to the heat.
Maskery says a lot of people think of homelessness in the winter, but the heat, he says, can be just as hard on the homeless
“You cannot hang out in the mall all day long, so we thought we would open up just to be courteous to our community and to show them that there are people that care,” he said.