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It’s now up to the provincial government to decide the future of Hope Mission’s planned mega-shelter for the homeless in Edmonton.

The Christian charity wants to rebuild its aging men’s homeless shelter just north of downtown and has already raised $6 million from nearly 3,000 Edmonton residents.

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But neighbours and the local McCauley Community League are against rebuilding one monolithic shelter. They want smaller shelters focused on rehousing people with privacy and dignity, and spread out where the need is throughout the city.

Now city council is on record saying it endorses that distributed model and the hot potato is in the air. It’s up to the province to decide what to do.

Hope Mission needs $8 million from the province in order to build.

“It comes back to dignity. I don’t know there’s dignity in putting people like that in a refugee camp,” said Greg Lane, president of the McCauley Community League.