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The City of Saskatoon will explore the possibility of identifying a location for a 24-hour drop-in centre for the homeless community.
The motion was made by Mayor Cynthia Block at the Governance and Priorities Committee meeting on April 9 after concerns arose from a lengthy question period on why Saskatoon had not yet identified a permanent homeless shelter location.
Read more:
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“People don’t have a place to go and I think that we would be remiss not to state how devastating this is right now for a lot of areas of our city, particularly the downtown, in (the) Riversdale and business districts more generally,” she said.
Block said she felt the city wasn’t doing what residents expected, that emergency services were taxed and the warming centres were closed.
“I just don’t think that this is the formula that works anymore as we continue to see more and more people that are unhoused,” she continued.
According to Pamela Goulden-McLeod, Saskatoon Emergency Management Operations director, winter shelters closed on March 31, and about 200 people who stayed at both St. Mary’s church and the Friendship Centre no longer have that option in the evenings and overnight.
“There are very limited options during the day. The social service agencies who may have had options three or four years ago for people to hang out in their locations, or to be drop-in locations have very limited capacity now because their core services are so overwhelmed.
“We have relied on Saskatoon Public Libraries for these social services, but that has taken them away from their core services as well, so very limited locations 24-hours a day,” she explained.
Block said the situation has reached a crisis level in Saskatoon and there’s no other option but to make sure people have a safe place to go.
“Talking about warming centres seven months from now isn’t the right approach. We need something now.”
She asked city administration to work with the province and stakeholders to find options for a safe place for people who are homeless to go “at all hours of the day and in all seasons,” until a longer term strategy is available.
The motion passed unanimously. No timeline was given for a report back to the committee or city council.
Coun. Robert Pearce also asked administration to report back on whether the same amount of police and fire resources being put towards the new temporary homeless shelter on Pacific Avenue were also being dedicated towards the Fairhaven 106-bed shelter.
“Clearly, I’m concerned that the results are not identical and I’d like to identify why we’re still having significant issues in Fairhaven,” he said.
That motion was also passed unanimously.
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