By Bre McAdam

Saskatoon women’s shelter locks its doors early

Apr 28, 2011 | 7:24 AM

A Saskatoon women's shelter that was set to close on Friday will be locking its doors two days early, according to women who live at Tamara's House.

“It's closed this afternoon at 4 o'clock,” said Anastasia, a sexual abuse victim who has been at the shelter on and off since November. She's now left scrambling to rearrange accommodations that she had made for Friday.

“I didn't have a place to go, I don't know anybody,” said Anastasia. “I would have been sitting outside.”

The original decision to close Tamara's House was announced in March because of a lack of funding and under-usage. However, Brenda also lives there and thinks the decision to do it Wednesday afternoon is for a different reason.

“(A) worker from the drop-in centre was contacted by media, and she got fired for taking the phone call and getting involved. Then we got told this morning that it was closed.”

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Brenda also claims residents were never directly told the reasons behind both the original closure and Wednesday's news.

“If you wanted to close a place and it's financially not viable anymore, answer the questions instead of bullying.”

While the women are upset with what they call administrative decisions, they say the councillors who work at Tamara's House have truly changed their lives.

“There's no place in Saskatoon that could even compare to Tamara's House,” wept Gail, a former client who has strong ties to the shelter. “They can't do this; I'm not the only one. There's hundreds of women out there that still need Tamara's House,” Anastasia agreed.
Cheryl Carver is a Tamara's House board member who confirms the shelter is closing early.

She says the decision came after their executive director learned of a potential protest at the house.

“She made a decision and we've given her the authority to do that,” stated Carver, adding if that happened, they didn't think they'd be able to continue programming.

“It's designed to be a safe house for women where they can do healing, and I think the concept of having protests and media really compromises that.”

Carver insists they helped find the women accommodations and rides on Wednesday if they needed them.

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