The women’s winter warming shelter on Avenue C that opened late last year may see a new location.
Concerns about the close proximity to the Salvation Army Men’s Emergency Shelter have kept the city looking for another location, worried about the congregation of people.
A new location, 130 Idylwyld Drive North, has been proposed to city council as a new drop-in centre.
“It has been a challenge over the years to find locations. The city only really got into this in the last few years,” said Lesley Anderson, director of planning development for the City of Saskatoon.
“And these types of facilities do generate quite a bit of interest and feedback from adjacent landowners, so we’ve been working through that, and we know there’s challenges with every location.”
The proposed long-term location is looking to have distinct spaces for both men and woman.
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Existing funding from the federal government would go into purchasing the building with money from the city to renovate it.
Tribal Chief Mark Arcand of the Saskatoon Tribal Council says more services are needed in the new building compared to the resources they had in the previous Avenue C building.
“Showers are really important, proper bathrooms, you now, so we can actually monitor what’s going in there because again, we have some people that are still breaking the rules and sneaking in, you know, addiction situations,” Arcand said.
The new location is close to other service organizations like Big Brothers and Big Sisters, as well as The Friendship Centre.
Arcand says he isn’t concerned about moving the concentration of people as those nearby services aren’t dealing with the same challenges in homelessness, and they may help people attending the drop-in shelter.
“They’re running programs and services. I think what it’ll do is potentially support this opportunity. So it’s easier access, I’ll say, for them to go on … over to the Friendship Centre and … access some of their services, whether it’s an AA meeting or whatever they’ve got going on,” said Arcand.
If the city decides to go through with the purchase, the Idylwyld location is set to open in November, but Arcand is pushing to have it open sooner to be prepared for cold temperatures.
As for the Avenue C location, Arcand says that instead of closing it, he would like to see it used as a backup winter shelter, since a lot of money and resources have already gone into the building.
Talks will continue in the next city council meeting on Feb. 25th.
Watch above for more on the proposed drop-in shelter.
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