For Metro Calgary Neil Mackinnon

Dottie Laithwaite is happily singing a different tune.

The former Lions Club president was lead singer in a boisterous chorus of senior and widow dissenters who opposed opening up West Hillhurst's temporary homeless shelter seven years ago.

The city's planning commission approved extending the city-owned and Calgary Drop-In Centre operated shelter's life until July 2013 Thursday, pending a public consultation tentatively slated for October.

"I have absolutely nothing to complain about now," she said. "We were very concerned but with the way they've managed this shelter, all our fears have washed away."

The shelter, which hosts up to 8,500 people annually and 150 per night, has had "little or no negative impact on the surrounding community," said city planner David Lupton and despite a murder inside earlier this year, Don Coutu, who lives just down the block said even that was basically to be expected.

"You can't tell me that this was the first time someone in a situation like that was killed," he said. "Something's bound to happen eventually when have put 150 men who are down on their luck in a big way and have to live in a shelter."

Calgary Drop-In's Louise Gallagher said it's largely the shelter's residents who are responsible for their acceptance in the community.
"These men are not criminals," she said. "A lot of the people we help have full-time jobs and just need a roof over their heads."