Prince Albert's YWCA is having difficulty finding a spot for a permanent shelter. It says things like 24-hour security should be seen as a benefit. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Permanent homeless shelter

Still looking: finding spot for permanent shelter a challenge for YWCA

Apr 5, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Finding a permanent location for a 24/7 shelter for homeless people in Prince Albert is proving to be a challenge.

The YWCA, which operates the Stepping Stones shelter at its temporary location on the Exhibition Grounds, said several locations have been identified, but have not been approved by city hall.

The YWCA, City and Sask. Housing Authority have met several times and will meet again next week.

“There’s been no offers made yet. Where the meeting was left was that Sask Housing wanted the City to send them locations that would be suitable to explore,” said Donna Brooks, director of the YWCA.

“The city has to say that they’re good with these areas. We know that it’s a complicated issue.”

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READ MORE: Multiple groups have been discussing the homeless concerns for some years.

Brooks understands when residents and businesses don’t want a homeless shelter nearby but said there is better monitoring of the homeless population at the shelter than there is further away.

At least three staff are always on location, and they have paid security monitoring the exterior to make sure any problems are dealt with immediately.

“No matter where you put a shelter, there’s going to be a number of concerns from the surrounding property,” Brooks said.

She is not looking to have a shelter next to a school or a densely populated residential area, but said that other locations might benefit from having the extra security brought by the shelter

“We also have security personnel in a vehicle outside patrolling the grounds to make sure people aren’t causing any problems,” she said.

The downtown business association is opposed to having the shelter in their area as well.

READ MORE: Services expanded with funding for 24 hour shelter

An up-to-date snapshot of the status of the homeless population is not available as no count was done this past winter as happened the previous two years.

But Brooks said the shelter has been full pretty much all winter, even after it was expanded to 45 beds.

She explained that users can be divided into three basic groups, one is chronically un-housed as they deal with mental health, cognitive or addiction issues they do not have the ability to control, another group is those that have fallen on recent hard times and are much simpler to move into transitional or supportive housing.

The third group is people passing through the community and just need a place to sleep for a night or two.

Whichever group it is, what Brooks does not see is a reduction in the number of people needing emergency shelter.

“I don’t think it’s slowed down. There’s just so many mitigating factors that are playing into it. It’s a very, very complicated issue, the homelessness situation and it’s definitely not slowing down at this point in time.”

Prince Albert City Police reported two people found dead in public places this past winter, but they do not appear to have been caused by exposure to elements.

Brooks said one of the men had slept in the shelter the night before and left in the morning and appeared well until he was later found deceased.

The other person was not part of the shelter’s clientele.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com