The city will contribute $200,000 to a $1.2 million project aimed at helping homeless people survive this winter. The rest is expected to come from other levels of government, community organizations and private contributors.
Saskatoon city council has greenlit $200,000 for a $1.2 million capital project aimed at helping homeless people survive the cold this winter.
The Winter Navigation and Warming Centres project is a collaborative effort between the city and other organizations.
Lesley Anderson, the city’s director of planning and development, noted it’s a reactive measure and will not fully resolve homelessness issues in Saskatoon; the goal is to ensure people make it through the cold months.
“This will be a better overall response for this winter … it is purely health and safety — this is necessary for people to survive in our winter,” Anderson said.
Funding for the project is set at $1.2 million, with the city providing $200,000 through its reserve for capital expenditures. The remainder is expected to come from other levels of government, community organizations and private contributors.
The report notes that last winter, the St. Mary’s Emergency Overnight Warming Centre on 20th Street West was used by an average of 122 people per night, with spikes of up to 230 during extreme cold weather.
Gordon Taylor, executive director of the Salvation Army’s Crossroads Residential Services, told city council on Wednesday that every city where he has worked has struggled to provide safety for its homeless population in winter.
All levels of government need to come together in a partnership to create a robust approach, he said.
“The need is even greater, and the weather has hit earlier than it did last winter, too.”
The organization hopes to have the St. Mary’s overnight warming centre open soon, but needs to finish addressing some boiler issues first.
An administrative report to city council notes that local shelters were full during the summer months this year, while the number of homeless encampments increased. The report estimates that 200 to 400 new people are homeless in the city.
Planning began in the spring, but many of the locations considered were the wrong size or didn’t have the right setup.
Community partners that considered providing a location had already struggled to offer core services and couldn’t risk expanding, the report says. Some potential locations were also not available because existing programs would need to be relocated due to the hours of operation required.
The city administration is also working on a longterm homelessness action plan with community partners; the plan outlined in the report is an emergency measure.
The report says the longterm plan would require substantial and stable funding from the federal and provincial governments.
Coun. Bev Dubois asked for a detailed cost breakdown for this year’s plan, saying she found it strange that none was provided.
Pamela Goulden-MacLeod, the city’s director of emergency management, said the cost breakdown is divided between three locations: St. Mary’s Emergency Overnight Warming Centre, Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre and Sawēyihtotān.
She said the numbers have been broken down week by week, adding that draft budgets were created for these locations.
“This budget was fluid, depending on what funding sources we could get and finalize,” Goulden-MacLeod said.
The money would help with things like staffing, she said, noting emergency medical responders would be covered for each location. Food, facility repairs and cleaning are also included within the draft budgets.
Dubois asked why those details weren’t in the report. City manager Jeff Jorgenson said the information could be provided, but it isn’t typical for this kind of administrative report. The services to be offered are clearly articulated within it, he said.
Dubois suggested an amendment, calling for the city to use its vacant lot and adaptive reuse incentive reserve for downtown housing as a funding source, arguing that the city is strapped financially. Her motion failed after it did not receive a seconder.
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