The proposed shelter will be located under the grandstand at Prince Albert Exhibition grounds. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Plans for winter

Council approves permit for new cold weather shelter

Oct 14, 2020 | 6:00 PM

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, local non-profit groups are moving ahead with plans to open a new cold weather shelter with support from Prince Albert city council.

The city’s politicians unanimously approved the development permit needed to establish the 20-bed facility at the grandstand building on Prince Albert Exhibition Grounds at Monday night’s meeting.

“I’m very excited to have the approval,” YWCA Executive Director Donna Brooks told paNOW following the meeting. “I think we’re headed in the right direction. There was a lot of work by a lot of people that brought this together, and it will help keep our people safe this winter.”

Plans for the shelter came out of meetings co-ordinated by the City of Prince Albert in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project is being spearheaded by River Bank Development Corporation and the Prince Albert YWCA.

At Monday night’s council meeting, Brian Howell, manager at River Bank Development Corporation, said physical distancing requirements have reduced shelter capacities. At the same time, the number of people on the street in Prince Albert this winter is likely to increase. A second wave could result in lockdowns in surrounding communities, while many people experiencing homelessness rely on others for temporary shelter and couch-surfing could be more difficult during the pandemic.

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“There won’t be as many people willing to take in that uncle or cousin or brother,” Howell told council.

Additionally, many places people previously could have spent the night like restaurants or bank vestibules are closed, Howell added, speaking after the meeting.

“It’s really a lot tougher out there for homeless people,” he said.

Preparing for Nov. 1 opening

The YWCA will open their regular cold weather shelter at Our House, its usual location, on Thursday. They plan to shift operations over to the grandstand on Nov. 1. The new location will allow them to double the amount of available beds from 10 to 20.

In the meantime, Howell said renovations at the grandstand building with start immediately. Showers, a washer and dryer, and security cameras will be put in, while other upgrades will bring the facility up to fire code.

Funding for the new location mostly comes from a federal pot of money for homelessness, which was topped up this year in response to COVID-19.

According to a city press release, $320,000 of the $361,000 operating cost of the shelter will be funded by the federal government. The rest comes from the Ministry of Social Services and the YWCA.

The enlarged cold weather shelter location will have extended hours, with the facility open 18-hours a day as opposed to 12.

Brooks, with the YWCA, said the additional time will be key to connect people with services like health and housing if they’re interested.

“That gives staff an opportunity to sit and actually spend time with the clients and find out what they need,” she explained.

COVID education and awareness

Aside from keeping people out of the potentially deadly cold, organizers said the shelter will also play an important role in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Citing the recent outbreak that stemmed from events held at the The Full Gospel Outreach Centre in Prince Albert, Howell said the cold weather shelter would help prevent similar outbreaks – both educating people about the virus and giving service providers a better idea of what’s happening in the community.

“I think if people would have been aware of the dangers of those meetings they might have made different choices,” he said. “And if we would have heard that it was going on before it happened, we would have made sure someone was there to stop it… this went on for a number of nights and it was quite surprising that no one caught it. It just throws the whole community into chaos.”

The cold weather shelter will also help facilitate contact tracing.

“If you look at the current outbreak for example, they’re having a really hard time finding everybody because the people that were in that church are all over the place,” Howell said. “If it was winter in Prince Albert, there’s a good chance that at least a few of them would be at the shelter.”

Plans for the future

Right now, the shelter is set to operate until April 30, 2021. But Brooks told council she hopes to continue to operate the expanded cold weather shelter in future years if funding is available.

“I do have a dream of it going past this year. I think it would be an amazing solution for the city,” she said, adding she has been pressuring the provincial government to provide core funding for men’s shelters, as opposed to only women’s.

Council also unanimously passed a separate motion to forward a motion to the Municipalities of Saskatchewan (formerly SUMA) asking the provincial government to provide core funding for men’s shelters.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom