The space at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on King Street will have 60 beds available for those in Kitchener and Waterloo

After a long search, a new temporary overflow shelter is set to open in Kitchener on Monday.

The space is at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on King Street, and will have 60 beds available for those most vulnerable in Kitchener and Waterloo.

Initially, they earmarked 45 spaces. But with the temporary space at St. Mary's shutting down, officials with the region were able to stretch out their new location.

"Some of that transition between St. Mary's and St. Mark's may be a little rocky for individuals, so (we wanted) to have the flexibility and extra capacity to ensure that we're able to accomodate the need across the system," says Ryan Pettipiere, the Director of Housing Services with the Region of Waterloo.

The St. Mary's space opened up on November 11, thanks to an initiative with The Working Centre and the Inner City Health Alliance group.

Also opening that day was a site at The Bridges, to service people in Cambridge.

The Bridges will remain open until April 2020 --- with 28 spaces available --- along with the St. Mark's location.

"The spaces that we have opened are able to accordion," Pettipiere says.

"If we're finding that fewer people are needing the spaces, then we can have fewer in operation overall. If we need more than what current capacity will allow for, then we're going to have to find additional space to what we already have in place."

He says they've had discussions with a few places just in case the region needs even more space for the winter.

The budget for this program comes in at $407,000, with much of it going to cover staffing costs.

Last year, the region spent nearly a million dollars to put overflow into motels, which didn't allow those people access to staffing or housing supports.

The extra need came about after space used in previous years became unavailable.