Boyle Street Community Services is once again dealing with a flooded basement, just as it was preparing to resume a wide range of services for Edmontonians in need.
Spokesperson Ian Mathieson said during the storm on July 16 that damaged Rogers Place, nearby Boyle Street had three inches of water pool in the basement.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve had to deal with this,” Mathieson said. “This is sort of an ongoing issue with the sewer systems in this area.”
Mathieson said the organization has dealt with flooding in its basement three of four times now.
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Mathieson said the organization has worked with the insurance company to clean the water up quickly, and now, they’re in restoration mode.
“It looks like the building will be out of commission for about three, four, maybe even five months,” he said.
“It was sort of the worst timing.”
The EXPO Centre, which has been running day-shelter services during the pandemic, is set to stop at the end of the month, meaning Boyle Street will be needed now more than ever.
Boyle Street was getting ready to offer its mental wellness counselling and youth and family programming when the flooding occurred.
“We needed to create as much space as possible in our facility for folks to physically distance from each other,” Mathieson said.
“It’s a pretty serious setback for us.”
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Though Boyle Street does have insurance, there are still costs involved.
“Our deductible is really sky-high now. Every time this happens it incurs a pretty significant financial cost for us,” Mathieson explained.
“The bigger cost is the lack of services we’re able to provide.”
He said right now, the Expo is seeing 500-800 visitors a day. Not all of those people will need to access to Boyle Street, because there are other service providers in the community, but Mathieson said there will be a need in the city for the organization once the EXPO closes its doors.
Boyle Street is operating right now at about one-third of its capacity due to coronavirus.
“We need to desperately find space around the city and even in our own programs to accommodate the folks who are being sheltered during the day at Expo Centre,” he said.
“This isn’t just a summer problem, we don’t anticipate there being a vaccine or a reasonable treatment by winter.
“We really need to think about space for people when it gets cold.”
He said the building next door, which was supposed to be used for employment services, also flooded in the storm.
“We’re just really pinched for finding places for staff. They have to have a place to work, to do paperwork and meet with people,” he explained.
“The good news is our clients are very resilient. They can withstand a lot and that’s an inspiration to a lot of us who work with them.”
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