Scattered Site in La Ronge is the location of the shelter. (Scattered Site/Facebook)

By Derek Cornet

program closure

Extended Hours Program comes to an end until November

Jun 5, 2020 | 2:30 PM

The Extended Hours Program at Scattered Site is closed again until the colder months.

The program officially came to an end last week after serving as a place for the homeless to sleep during the winter. It generally begins around Nov. 15 and ends March 31 every year, but was able to remain open for an extra two months because of additional funding.

“We actually gave layoff notices and everything, then Cameco contacted us and suggested we should apply for this funding and we did,” Kikinahk Friendship Centre Executive Director Ron Woytowich said. “April and May have been courtesy of Cameco. They have been paying the cost to keep it open.”

Woytowich believes it was important the program remained operational for two extra months due to the actions taking place because of the coronavirus. He said many of the people who use the shelter aren’t originally from La Ronge and wouldn’t have been able to travel back to their home communities with the restrictions in place and lack of somewhere to go.

Through Scattered Site, clients also have a range of mental health and addiction options available to them and they were given meals during the week. Woytowich recently learned the provincial government has decided to fund Scattered Site for another year.

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“Scattered Site itself is open and it’s funded by health and provides services Monday to Friday during the day for people who are homeless and on the street,” he said.

With the shelter closed for at least another five months, Woytowich noted some clients have cabins they will go to while others will couch surf. He believes the shelter should be open throughout the entire year, but he hasn’t been able to find any sources of funding to make it happen.

“It’s a problem and I have tried for the last five or six years to find funding,” Woytowich said. “We seem to fall through the cracks all the time and, the truth is, we don’t have that many benefactors who provide us with funding that the government doesn’t wish to provide.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno