As Edmontonians bundle up against the first extreme blast of winter weather, the city's homeless are filling emergency shelters to near capacity.

Nearly 1,000 homeless have been seeking refuge from the icy winds and bone-chilling cold every night since temperatures plummeted to the –30 C range Saturday night.

The recent demand is near the maximum that existing shelters can hold, said Homeward Trust executive director Susan McGee.

But she said the group, which co-ordinates the city's homeless initiatives, has contingency plans to provide extra space if necessary.

"When they [shelters] see their numbers reach a certain level where they know they won't be able to house everyone, they need to know we have overflow space and will move staff over and set it up so that we can accommodate people," McGee said.

There are approximately 170 more shelter spaces in the city this year than last year, McGee said, thanks to an expansion by the Salvation Army.

However, she said, the demand for shelter could be even higher in the months ahead.

"People find ways, for very short periods of time, [to] make do with either friends or relatives," McGee said. "But it's really after Christmas that the generosity of the season begins to wane and some of the people are back out on the street and the numbers for the shelters begin to increase again."

A recent count showed more than 3,000 people in Edmonton are homeless.