Haircuts, housing info on offer at Calgary homeless event

More than 1,000 peopleturned out to stock up on winter clothes andhousing information Saturday at a one-day event organized for Calgary's homeless and those at risk of losing their homes.

Project Homeless Connect brought more than 50 local agencies and government programs together at the Municipal Buildingto make it easy for people to access services in one place.

Maria Neli, a refugee from Mexico, has been living at a crowded Salvation Army residence for the last two months. She came to the event with her two young daughters, looking for help.

"Clothes for my babies and me, a home, looking for a home," she said.

Organized by the Calgary Homeless Foundation, there was help to find jobs, counselling and housing, as well as some of life's necessities, including free haircuts and clothes.

The busiest site helpedreplace identification that has been lost or stolen,a common problem for people who live in shelters.

This is the third time this year the event has been held, with attendance increasing steadily from 650 in April to 800 in September andmore than 1,000on Saturday, which coincided with National Housing Day.

"Homelessness can be the paradox of prosperity ...because at the same time you have more people moving to Calgary, you have less and less housing for people to come into," said Tim Richter,CEO of the foundation.

Cooling economy may hikehomelessness

Michael Mulligan, who movedfrom Vancouver a week and a half ago, still hasn't found a home.

"I noticed out here in Calgary that the wages [are] way higher, [but] it's a little bit harder to find a place to live," he said, checking out the event for jobs and housing.

The project is part of the 10-year Plan to End Homelessness,unveiled in January by a committee made up of leaders from business, government and social agencies.

The number of homeless in Calgary has jumped about 900 per cent since 1992. The last count of the city's homeless population in May found4,060 people had no homes.

"Our concern is, as the economy cools, the problem's only going to get worse because those that came to work in construction, retail, wholesale, will begin to lose their employment,"Richter said.

"With the economy shifting, we're getting concerned about single-parent families in particular because they're working in recession-prone industries."