Calgary city council has approved a temporary homeless shelter for next winter, drawing criticism from local aldermen who say it isn't enough.

Ald. Druh Farrell said the solution to homelessness in the city is affordable housing, not shelters, adding that to call a shelter temporary is to ignore reality.

"I had two temporary shelters, one was indeed temporary because we put 16th Avenue through it. The other one that's called temporary, I think is on its eighth year," he told CBC News.

On Monday, city council approved the creation of an emergency shelter for 450 people in the east side Foothills Industrial Park. The Mustard Seed, a non-profit, Christian humanitarian organization, will operate the shelter from November to May.

Shelter clients will be transported in and out of the facility and will be carefully screened.

"I think we should stop calling them temporary, and I'm wondering what will ensure that this is temporary? What happens during the summer? What's the plan to extricate ourselves from this?" said Farrell.

East Calgary Ald. Joe Ceci agrees with Farrell, saying it doesn't matter how good the shelter is, a temporary facility is still not the right answer.

"You know we continue to rely on short-term solutions for housing people when really their and our best interests are in long-term housing solutions that are appropriate and adequate for people's needs," Ceci said.

Floyd Perras, of the Mustard Seed, said the aldermen have a point, and without long-term solutions the need for temporary shelters will continue to rise.

"The issue will just grow and grow," he said. "We're going to be looking at opening another one for two or three hundred people in a couple of years."