Demand at The Gathering Place has ballooned in the last few months.

The facility offers meals and a 30-bed emergency shelter to vulnerable people experiencing homelessness or struggling with mental health or addictions.

Executive Director Paul Davis says numbers related to occupancy rates, length of stay and the number of people who are turned away because they are at capacity has changed dramatically since the spring.

He says since April their occupancy rate has increased from 85 per cent to 95 per cent while the average length of stay in a shelter—only intended for a night or two—has increased from 19 nights to 24.

In the spring they were turning away about 16 people a month because they were full, but in the month of November that skyrocketed to 62 people they had to turn away.