The executive director of Shelter House says new programs aimed at housing homeless people in Thunder Bay, Ont., failed to make a dent in shelter use this winter.

The shelter was at capacity nearly every night, Michelle Jordan told CBC.

Many long-time homeless people now have homes, she added, but new faces keep arriving.

Jordan isn't yet sure why, she said, but she acknowledged that Shelter House may have had an unofficial "wait list" of individuals who couldn't previously get a bed.

"You know we have 500 and some people homeless in the city, so I mean we only have 62 beds here, so it could be that, yeah, people weren't getting in, and now they are."

The Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board currently runs a high-needs homeless wait-list aimed at helping vulnerable people get housed faster.

"It's got to make an impact at some point," said Shelter House executive director Michelle Jordan of all of the new and upcoming projects aimed at helping homeless people in the city settle into homes. (Matt Prokopchuk / CBC)

It also co-administers a program called Home for Good that provides both housing and supports to homeless people with addictions or mental health issues in order to help them hold onto their homes.

Since those programs were put into place, Shelter House has seen far fewer people turn up back at the shelter after being evicted from housing, Jordan said.

And more help is on the way.

"There's a lot of new units being built — some transition units that are coming up. There's youth housing that is coming up," Jordan said.

Housing workers have been coming into the shelter frequently these days to prepare people for those opportunities by helping them get ID and meet other requirements.

Meanwhile, social service agencies in the city are developing a coordinated access system so that homeless individuals can find the housing and services they need no matter which agency they seek help from.

"We're all working together to try to make sure that we don't have chronically homeless people in Thunder Bay," Jordan said.

"It's got to make an impact at some point."