Saskatoon Tribal Council holds walk to show community support for Fairhaven shelter

The Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) hosted a walkThursday to show community support for the STC emergency wellness centre inSaskatoon's Fairhaven neighbourhood,amidongoing controversy over how shelters are managed in the city.

Hundreds of people wearing orange descended upon city hall and walked all the way to the shelter in Fairhaven.The STC's Walk for Truth and Reconciliation Against Homelessness began at 3 p.m. CST and went on until 4:45 p.m.CST.

The presence of the wellnesscentre in Fairhaven has been controversial. More than 1,000 people, most from the Fairhaven neighbourhood, have signed an online petition seeking relocation of the wellness centre, citing concerns about safety and increased crime.

STC ChiefMark Arcand said that the walk wasabout educating, creating awareness and helping the most vulnerable who don't have a voice.

"Isupport their decision and concerns about crime in the neighbourhood, butthey have to justify and prove that its coming from the emergency wellness centre," he said.

Arcand said he is open to having increased security and police presence for the safety of the community.

He said that he also supports the decision to axe a new shelter that was supposed to come to the Sutherland neighbourhood because it was tooclose to a school, but he says the STC shelter is about 800 metres away from a school and has no businesses nearby either.

Arcand saidin an interview before Thursday's walk that the conversation around the shelter hasn't focused on all the good things it does.

WATCH | STC Chief Mark Arcandwalks to support Fairhaven shelter:

Amid backlash, people walk to support Saskatoon's Fairhaven shelter

6 months ago

Duration 2:47

Saskatoon Tribal Council holds a walk to show community support for Fairhaven shelter after 1,000 people signed a petition to get the shelter out of the Fairhaven neighbourhood.

"When we look at all the positive outcomes that we're having inside of this facility, nobody's talking about that except for us. And I think at the end of the day, we've got to focus on how we're making a difference in people's lives," Arcandsaid.

Arcand said homelessness isa community problem.

Ward 3 Coun. DavidKirton, who represents Fairhaven,acknowledged there are residents who are unhappy with the shelter.

"There are people within the neighbourhood who have been affected by the shelter since it was first opened," he said.

Kirton said he wantsresidentsto understand that people in shelters are going through the toughest times of their lives, and that they need support to eventually move on totransitional housing.

"There are good people within the EWC[emergency wellness centre]who are are just struggling to make ends meet, and they need the shelter," Kirton said.

He said he hopes people in the neighbourhoodcan come together and have amicable conversations.

"Wouldn't it be great if we had a great big baseball game in the park outside that shelter and everybody from the neighbourhood came and we had a barbecue and we could all get together andtalk to each other and realize that everybody is human and everybody has a place in our community. That would be wonderful," Kirton said.

Robert Pearce, a local pastor who has said he intends to run for the Ward 3 council seat in the upcoming November election, has previously said the current shelter is a "colossal failure" and should be "defunded and closed until better solutions are created."

Pearce, whose Fairmont Baptist Church is just a few hundred metres from the wellness centre, previously wrote an open letter to Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and several government ministers outlining his concerns about the centre, including "property damage, vandalism and thefts costing us thousands of dollars."

Gordon Taylor, the executive director at the Salvation Army in Saskatoon, has said their permanent shelter, which has a capacity of 85 beds,is "full pretty much every night through the winter."He has also said there is a need for more shelter beds in the city.

Plans for anotherSaskatoon shelter axed

A new temporary emergency shelter was supposed to open in Saskatoon's Sutherland neighbourhood this spring, but those plans have been axed.

Earlier this month, city council passed a motion saying that sites for emergency shelters in the future must be at least 250 metres away from any elementary schools.

That means the proposed shelter at the former Fire Station No. 5 site on Central Avenue is dead due to its proximityBishop Filevich Ukrainian Bilingual School.

The motion was passed shortly after community members and the city councillor who represents them expressed concern about a rise in crime, more needles in the park and the impact on school operations.

Pearce said he also helped mobilize support to shut downplans for the Sutherland shelter.

The city stateson its websitethat it is continuing to support the province in its approach to homelessness through identifying sites for two new locations, each having approximately 30 shelter beds.