Saskatoon city council has set a new guideline for upcoming shelter spaces slated for the city and are also requesting a report about safety in communities with shelters.
These decisions were made in Wednesday’s city council meeting, but Mayor Charlie Clark spoke on the matter Thursday, further explaining the situation.
The two new shelter spaces being created by the provincial government in Saskatoon are required to be 250 metres away from elementary schools.
Mayor Charlie Clark didn’t support the motion, saying that he felt it constrained the city’s ability to find locations for shelters.
“We have had a very difficult time finding locations,” Clark said.
He said this was the direction council wanted to take and city administration would be doubling down to find a place for the two, 30-space shelters.
One of the shelters was slated for the Sutherland community at a former fire hall, but the new requirement removed that as a potential site.
“We have far too many people out on the streets, in our community, especially in this cold weather.”
Clark said residents in Saskatoon realize that shelter spaces are needed and homelessness needs to be addressed, but they run into an issue when shelter locations are proposed.
“We’ve heard about the concerns people have about the number of people overdosing, about people freezing out there in the cold, and also that in neighbourhoods it doesn’t feel safe when you have people in encampments, or people sleeping in back alleys, or abandoned houses, or at an ATM machine or lobbies of apartment buildings. But we have a conundrum, because everybody knows we need to tackle the problem, but whenever we identify a place that creates issues within those neighbourhoods.”
Clark put out a call for any residents with recommendations on potential sites for shelters to reach out to the city with their ideas.
He touched on the report being made by police and fire around what has been seen in Fairhaven since the STC Wellness Centre was established, what can be done in terms of patrol response and what work can be done with the provincial government and Saskatoon Tribal Council to better mitigate concerns.
Clark noted that not all of the community resource officers with the police have been trained yet, saying that more resources are on the way.
“These reports will give us a clear picture to work with the neighbourhoods and partners to try to address safety as we also try to support organizations and facilities that are really working to keep people alive right now in our community.”
The Mustard Seed is the organization picked to run the upcoming shelters. James Gardiner, the incoming CEO of the Mustard Seed, shared his thoughts about the city’s decision on Wednesday.
He said the Mustard Seed has been through similar processes in other cities, and the Mustard Seed remains committed to providing the services.
“Looking forward to being there, we just have to work with the city to find the next site,” Gardiner said.
He said through this process of finding locations in Saskatoon to set up shelters they’ve built some working relationships with other service providers in the city.
“There’s been a lot of good work and a lot of benefit for us. We’re looking forward to when we actually find a site and get up and running.”
The province said it is working with the Mustard Seed and the city of Saskatoon to add these shelter spaces and noted that the city was in charge of finding locations.
“The province respects community feedback, which is why the provincial approach to homelessness prefers a model of smaller shelters where municipalities determine locations for these services. We remain ready to move forward once suitable locations are established,” the province said.
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