Homeless shelter in Hay River closes, with hope to re-open in June

The homeless shelter in Hay River, which opened for the first time last fall, has closed its doors for now.

Pravina Bartlett, the executive director of the Hay River Committee for Persons with Disabilities, said funding for the 15-bed facility, flowing from the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation (NWTHC), ended on March 31.

"We only had a couple of people left," she said. Although the overnight space, dubbed the "Move Forward" program, had been at full capacity during the winter months, the number of clients had been dwindling, she said.

"One individual was heading out to his cabin as it's warming up, to get back out on the land. The other individual, his employer, was looking at having on-site housing available for him and that was pretty much it. Then it would have been empty."

For those individuals still using the shelter, Bartlett said, the shelter was able to find extra sources of funding to remain open for the first 10 days of April.

The goal, said Bartlett, is to open again with four bedsavailable on June 1.

"Right now, it's just a waiting game to see what funding opportunities come forward," she said, addingthe shelter has already submitted funding proposals. "It's really difficult, because we're scrambling at trying to find options."

Originally expected funding for 2 years

When the Hay River Committee for Persons with Disabilities first took on the housing project in May 2020, Bartlett said they had expected fundingfor two years. But months later, when they received the contribution agreement from NWTHC, it said the funding would only last until the spring of 2021.

It was "disappointing," said Bartlett, but the organization had already poured a lot of work into getting the shelter open by that point.

"We just pursued it and kept on going, and like I said, we're just still working towards continuing the project and if we have to change the scope a little bit, we'll do what we have to do to get the service back up and running again."

Although it doesn't make sense to keep the shelter open when there aren't any clients, Bartlett saidit's also possible there will beneed for the space in the next month-and-a-half.

"Somebody that may be coming out of jail, you know, somebody from the RCMP that may need access for the night, that type of thing."

Bartlett said her organization will continue to help people, but other community services will have to step up too.

"The bottom line is we need to have money to pay staff to operate. And if we don't have that, we can't be open," she said. "We're a non-profit organization. We're not a government. So if there's no money, there's no way to keep it going."