Saskatoon community organizations collaborate on warming centres

Community organizations are working together to provide warm spaces in Saskatoon for those who need them this winter.

Since Dec. 4, two locations have been available based on the time of day.  From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. CST, people can go to the Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR) site at 1516 20th St W in Saskatoon. From 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. CST, the Salvation Army is running the warming centre at St. Mary's Church Hall, located at 211 Avenue O South.

PHR has a capacity for 60 people, with the majority expected to move to the overnight centre, which can shelter up to 80 people at a time. 

The funding for the warming centres is coming from Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) in co-ordination with the city of Saskatoon. 

Kayla DeMong, executive director at PHR, said things have calmed down in the drop-in centre thanks to the overnight warming shelter as people are less stressed about where they will go for the night after PHR closes its doors. 

"I think the biggest difference is the amount of people, like that is putting a lot of pressure not just on Prairie Harm Reduction but lots of other organizations. And the question has become if this is where we're at –2 degrees, if we have –30, what's going to happen?"

DeMong said PHR ran the overnight shelter on its own last year and was hitting capacity. She said numbers are growing this year. She said the number of people with complex issues is also increasing because of a lack of housing and shelter space. 

"Prior to the overnight location opening, one of the biggest stressors was when our staff were trying to close down in the evening. People being incredibly panicked because we couldn't get them into shelter beds because the shelters were full and there was no resources," she said. 

DeMong said that once we get through winter and the funding for this centre is over, the number of people living on the streets is only going to increase. She wants to see year-round support for people who don't have homes to go to. 

"We've seen in our building in November, there was 303 individuals that accessed services that made-up over 1,200 visits to the building. And in November, 188 of those people were people we had never seen before," she said. 

The safe consumption site at PHR is also open until 10 p.m., but continues to run without funding or support from the provincial government. She said PHR still relies on donations and small grants to keep the doors open. 

She said the drop-in site is also underfunded and will have no funding come March 2024.

Gordon Taylor, executive director of the Salvation Army in Saskatoon, said he's seeing a consistent group of 80 to 100 people coming into the centre to escape the cold.

"We were having a little bit of a challenge getting all the cleanup done at the end of the night. So we've also contracted with the cleaning company to come in to make sure things are good for the church for when they come in to start their day," Taylor said.