Future of proposed emergency shelter in limbo after Saskatoon city council passes new location rules

A recent vote by Saskatoon city councilhas left the future of a proposed emergency shelter in limbo as the city looks for an alternative location.

Council approved a motion last week stating that emergency shelters must be at least 250 metres away from elementary schools, which effectively shut down plans for a proposed shelter in the Sutherland neighbourhood.

The vote came after residents expressed concerns about the shelter's proximity to a nearby school, a potential increase in crime and discarded needles in the neighbourhood's parks.

"It's a real setback. There was some time put in to try to find locations and that location is the one that we were able to get some agreement on with the province," Mayor Charlie Clark told CBC Tuesday.

"So now to have to go back to the drawing board is going to delay the process of getting badly needed shelters in place, and it's very hard to find those locations right now."

Clark and Coun. David Kirtonvoted against the motion.

The proposed 30-space permanent emergency shelter which would have been run by The Mustard Seed, an Alberta-based Christian non-profit organization was supposed to be operational by this spring.

Whilecity administration scours for a location, Clark urged the public to share ideas or suggestions, calling it "a community problem to solve."

"We need to all figure out how to find these locations together so that we can have the right facilities in place to meet the needs of the growing number of people who are homeless in our community," he said.

"We can't really have it both ways. We can't both make the streets more safe by having less homelessness, without having facilities and having those places."

He said Saskatoon is trying to learn from other cities and seeking inputfrom shelter providers and existing community organizations.

Light industrial areas can be apossible site: councillor

Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill, who represents the Sutherland area, was among those who raised concerns.

He has repeatedly talked about the effect shelters have on residential neighbourhoods, schools and businesses, saying he heard some of those concerns at a town hall meeting he organized in February.

"I'm relieved. It was not the ideal way with which I wanted to see that shelter location stopped. I don't think it was the best governance model that we used, but it was successful, and that is the only reason that I supported it," he said Tuesday, crediting the prevention of the shelter's opening in the proposed locationto the advocacy of people from his ward.

He said the new bylaw will not cut "too wide a swath of land out of the potential options."He referred to the Fairhaven shelter, which he said is located about 260 metres from an elementary school.

Hill said the shelter should be located near services and programs that the people using the shelter would need, and along well-serviced transit routes.

"What immediately springs to mind [is] some light industrial areas that have all of those things. You see a number of the adult services operations located in light industrial areas," he said, referring to the area sandwiched between the Travelodge hotel and train tracks south of Avenue C.

"I'm not suggesting heavy industrial, where you are relegating them to the far grounds of the corners of the far north area. No. Light industrial, so they're still well serviced by transit and on well-lit streets for safety."

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Clark said a site at the industrial area or outside of the city may not work.

"We need to make sure that we have those facilities throughout the city. We also have homelessness throughout the city. It's something that makes sense to have more distributed."

Hill said extensive stakeholder community engagement is needed to figure out the future of the proposed shelter, includingwith organizationsthat would serve the shelter's clients.

"We haven't had those conversations, and they need to happen before we move forward and select another location which may be brought with the same problems that the central location was," Hill said.

"Those conversations need to happen so that we're doing it right, not doing it fast."