City-wide consultation planned on homeless shelter location

Both Donna Brooks, CAO of the YWCA and Rhonda Trusty, CAO of the Downtown Business Improvement District (PADBID) spoke to council.

“I am in favour of that motion, ” Brooks said about the option to wait for the community to weigh-in. “There needs to be public consultation, and I also think it needs to have a deadline as we have been battling this for four years.”

She pointed out the difference between well-run shelters and those that are the opposite.

“I will say that we know what we’re doing. There’s different examples of shelters; there’s poorly-run shelters and there’s well-run shelters and you generally only hear about the poorly-run shelters.”

She said that wherever the shelter ends up being located, it won’t be a box and they plan to make it esthetically pleasing.

Studies show that the biggest cause of homelessness is a lack of housing, she said.

Brooks then equated the problem to playing musical chairs with an injured foot. Every time you remove a chair, the person with the bad foot is the person who loses their home.

She also pointed out that 50 per cent of users of the temporary shelter come in sober. Poverty, inflation and changes to the Saskatchewan Income Support program have all had an impact.

“Who is using the shelter? It’s not necessarily the people who are causing all the problems,” she said.

PADBID represents the downtown merchants and Trusty said that they wanted to make it clear that they support taking informed measures to manage homelessness.

“We wish to publicly show our support of the good work that the YWCA and non-profit organizations provide to the citizens of our city,” Trusty said.

She added the 15th Street location would impact the downtown businesses, which already have challenges with panhandling and crime.

Trusty said that the city commissioned a study in 2021 and challenged council to make the results public.

“This report is a solutions-based approach to mental health, addictions and the impact of homelessness,” she said.

In that study, she said one recommendation was that the province build an Acute & Chronic Risk Management Facility in Prince Albert.

Such a facility would have beds for homeless people but also professional services to address the causes of them being homeless.

“The City of Prince Albert has the blueprint on how to address homelessness based on the recommendations from the homelessness initiative report,” she said.

Housing, mental health, addictions and homelessness are all the responsibility of the province, she added, and that is laid out in the Constitution.

“ I ask the city to implement the process that’s in the report,” said Trusty.

The province agreed to fund a shelter well over a year ago but left it up to the city to come up with a location.

Brian Howell is now retired but worked for years with the Riverbank Development Corp, which supplies housing. He said he is worried that taking too long to decide will risk the provincial funding being lost.

“I think that the consultation is a really good idea and that’s something that probably should have been done a long time ago,” he said. “However, to delay this much longer is going to mean we’re not going to be able to do anything by next winter because of construction schedules and getting contracts done.”

The YWCA, which is the contracted provider of housing for homeless people, has been trying to get a location for four years with no success.

“If this continues to be delayed, at some point the provincial government and the local housing community are just not going to be able to continue with it anymore,” Howell said.

If that happens, the City will be dealing with the issue on its own with homeless people being put in police cells as a compassionate measure or taking up more space in the hospital’s emergency room.

“That’s going to lead to a lot more of the things they’re complaining about now, including the growth of crime, deaths on the street,” he said.

Mayor Powalinsky campaigned on the city needing to make a decision on a location and was asked why he made the motion to have the consultation on an issue that has been ongoing for years, albeit before he was on council.

“The idea came from talking to people and quite often I hear that city council is not approachable. Some people say that council doesn’t hear, council doesn’t listen, so we’ve committed as a council to saying no, we’re open, we’re approachable.”

He said March 31 was an arbitrary date to choose but he didn’t want to see things drag on longer than needed.

He is counting on the engagement from the public to give council what it needs to make the right decision.

No dates have been set yet for the four meetings but Powalinsky promised they will be well advertised so people know when and where they are.

Different councillors spoke about their perspectives on the issue but in the end, it was a unanimous vote in favour of Powalinsky’s motion.

—

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social

by Susan McNeil

City-wide consultation planned on homeless shelter location

What's Trending