Saskatoon Tribal Council calls on province to open warm-up shelter instead of new 30-bed facility

The Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) is calling on the province and the City of Saskatoon to open a warm-up shelter instead of a planned enhanced emergency shelter, which STC says could bring a cut to its Fairhaven shelter.

The province plans to open two new shelter facilities, one in Saskatoon and one in Regina, with about 30 beds each. A former Saskatchewan Transportation Company building located at 210 Pacific Avenue has been identified as a potential temporary site to accommodate 30 to 40 beds, offering essential amenities like showers, bathrooms and kitchen facilities, the city said in a news release late Friday afternoon.

The city-owned property will undergo renovations, but STC Chief Mark Arcand said the facility would not be adequate or effective due to rising homelessness in the city.

Last year, the Salvation Army ran a warming centre at St. Mary's Church Hall, located at 211 Avenue O S. The facility was seeing an average of 140 to 200 people through the winter.

Since the federal funding no longer exists, there are no warming shelters planned for Saskatoon this year.

"Proposing two 30-bed shelters, I think we need to put those on hold and really focus on warm-up shelters, because it's only going to help 30 or 40 people. Where are the other 150 people supposed to go?" Arcand told reporters on Wednesday morning.

Arcand said the province has indicated its two planned 30-bed facilities will cost $1.2 million per year. He said that funding could be redirected to warm-up shelters to help more people.

"Nobody talks to the service providers and that's the problem. We have too many bureaucrats from the City of Saskatoon administration making decisions without ever being in the, in the trenches I'll say, of working in homelessness. They don't have a clue."

The Saskatoon enhanced emergency shelter, which was initially proposed in the Sutherland neighbourhood, will be operated by Calgary-based Mustard Seed. 

The City of Saskatoon said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that it plays no role in operations or funding of shelters.

"In terms of plans for an overnight warming location — part of its responsibility under the Extreme Cold Weather Emergency Response Plan — the City is in the final stages of working with community partners to have a solution available this winter," the statement said.

Gordon Taylor, the executive director at Salvation Army in Saskatoon, said his organization didn't expect the amount of people who used services at the warm-up location last winter. 

"One of the gaps we've identified in Saskatoon is the need for some sort of basic shelter. The shelter that STC runs, the shelter Salvation Army runs, this new shelter that's been announced that the Mustard Seed will be running, we're all what are called enhanced shelters," he said.

"There's no basic shelter in town that [covers] the need every winter for a winter warm-up location like we ran at Saint Mary's last year.… One of the big needs I believe in community is the need for a basic shelter year round."