Activists are raising an alarm about the future of the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre's new role as an emergency shelter.

Harsha Walia, the centre's project coordinator, issued a news release on Saturday (March 17) that includes the following demands:

1. "Safe, supported, and long-term affordable housing for women be made available immediately."

2. "Welfare rates be increased 50% not just $50."

3. "Community-based emergency safe spaces, such as the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre whose funding ends on MARCH 31, 2007, receive funding to operate on a 24-hour basis with adequate and private facilities for women -- including storage, proper beds, and food."

The Pivot Legal Society has estimated that Olympics-related gentrification will triple the number of homeless by 2010. Approximately 50 homeless women have been sleeping at the centre every night since last November.

BC Housing, a provincial Crown corporation, has provided a one-time grant of $80,000, according to Walia's news release, but the funding expires at the end of this month.