(Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Public safety

City’s homeless face uncertain winter as primary resource center closes for good

Sep 21, 2022 | 5:00 PM

Missy Custer sits huddled with a group of others in a downtown Prince Albert alley. The few belongings the group has are kept in a small shopping cart.

With temperatures dropping at night to near freezing and with the last shelter closing, Custer and others in her same position are running short on time and options. The 30-year-old said she’s lived on the streets over three years and told paNOW she’s worried for herself and her friends.

“I go to check up on them, see if they are OK,” she said. “We try to have each others’ backs when it’s needed.”

Jennifer, 40, is nearing one year with no fixed address and like Missy, also has no idea where she will go if there is no indoor shelter. She said supplies are hard to come by.

“I went to go to mobile crisis to ask if they had a blanket when it was raining the other night and they didn’t have any. They had transferred them to the women’s shelter,” she said.

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Jennifer explained the best way to get through cold nights is with the support of others around her.

“Maybe you have a blanket and maybe they have a sweater… but it’s not always that way. Out here it’s like people are sneaky and they’ll steal your things and you have to start all over the next day,” she said.

For those without shelter, an abandoned shopping cart acts as a mobile trailer. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

Sherry, 40, said she’s been homeless for eight months and while most nights she too huddles up with the people near her, she confesses there are nights where a cardboard box was the best option.

“Like I don’t know where I’m gonna sleep, where I’m gonna go, or what’s gonna happen at nighttime. Sometimes there’s rowdy people around here,” she said.

Blair, 43, has been without a home for nearly two years. He explained prior to COVID you could find shelter inside a business lobby or even a doorway, but now many businesses are locking up earlier and he is asked to leave.

“Everyone on the streets is gonna freeze and die this winter,” he said.

Loss of another resource

The Gate, which acted a sort of drop-in centre for Prince Albert’s homeless, and for those with hepatitis-C or HIV, closed its doors for good on Wednesday.

Gateway Convenant Church volunteers ran the small space for the last seven years. Linea Lanoie told paNOW she is stepping down for health reasons, but acknowledged it was a hard decision.

“I know there’s nothing really that will fill the gap of what we did,,” she said, adding it is her hope other groups on the city will step up and take on the clothing and hygiene handouts.

In addition to providing snacks, the small space was also used by local homeless to access a phone or computer. There was also programming offered, thanks to a partnership with the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

“We can have six [volunteers] on at a time and we usually run through about 35 to 40 snacks in the morning and afternoon,” Lanoie said.

Noting her hopes the Mustard Seed will open a shelter, Lanoie said she understands the public concern with having a shelter space in the downtown area and the unpredictable people it may attract. Yet with no plan in place yet and the days getting shorter, she is getting very concerned.

“I am afraid we are going to have some exposure deaths this winter if we have no shelter,” she said. “We did before.”

In February, 2013, John Dorion, 62, and Doris Ahenakew, 46, were found dead near the railroad tracks close to the 100-block of 15 Street East. Just two months prior, James Benjamin Roberts, 49, was found dead in the Cornerstone shopping area. All three were known to use shelters, but on the nights they died, they did not access a shelter.

paNOW has been aware of an Exhibition Board meeting taking place Thursday night regarding a potential shelter space under the grandstand. It’s not clear though if any final decisions will be made at that time.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell