A new City of Prince Albert report on the findings from four community consultation meetings has identified 11 – 15th Street East as the most suitable location for a new homeless shelter.
The site is located just off the 15th Street East and Central Avenue intersection across from the Venice House restaurant.
Community Safety and Well-Being Coordinator Anna Dinsdale wrote the report. It is included in the agenda package for Monday’s executive committee meeting.
The report recommends council prepare for formal consideration of a homeless shelter location at the April 7 regular meeting. The report also recommends administration proceed with a public meeting to present the results before April 7.
“Based on the feedback sessions and the survey responses, potential City owned lands or property that is currently for sale, that would be suitable for an enhanced emergency shelter were identified,” reads Dinsdale’s report. “Based on the scoring matrix, a site located at 11 – 15th Street East is the most suitable City owned location.”
Since March 2024, City administrators have been working with the Prince Albert YWCA to find a suitable site for the new shelter. The Government of Saskatchewan has allocated funds for the YWCA to build on or renovate a property for a permanent 24-hour enhanced emergency shelter.
Prince Albert YWCA CEO Donna Brooks said they would be happy with the 15th Street East site.
“I absolutely agree that 15th Street by the viaduct would be a perfect location. It is close to services, yet it’s not right down Central Avenue,” Brooks said in an interview with the Daily Herald. “It not right on top of the businesses. It’s a little removed. It also allows for green space. It would also allow for us to possibly lease some space in the building beside it as a new shelter is being constructed, which is very key because the place we’re in right now has a lot of issues.”
The new shelter would replace the Stepping Stones Shelter in the Prince Albert Exhibition Grounds. The shelter opened in 2020, but has been plagued by health concerns, and was shut down for more than a week due to the Prince Albert Exhibition.
Brooks said they can’t continue to operate Stepping Stones at the current location much longer.
“There are mold issues. There are concerns from public health because the airflow isn’t great. There are a lot of issues in the current location,” Brooks said. “For us, absolutely, that (15th Street East) would be the number one choice. There are other locations too. We just want an opportunity to be able to operate a shelter in the best possible location for the clients and for the City.”
The 15th Street East site was one of six City-owned properties evaluated based on feedback administration received from online surveys and four January community consultations. Those sites include land near Victoria Hospital, land north of the river, another property close to the current Stepping Stones Shelter, and two other locations: one at 111 18th Street West, the other off the 17th Street and Third Avenue East intersection.
The sites were given a graded in five categories: Service Accessibility, Shelter Accessibility, Served and Paved Access, Distance from Residential Areas, and Availability of Outdoor Space. Each site received a score out of three for each category. The 11 – 15th Street East site received the top score in all categories except Distance from Residential, which was a two out of three.
The 111 – 18th Street West was the second highest rated site. It received top scores in all categories except Distance from Residential, where is scored a zero because it is one block from a residential area.
The land near Victoria Hospital received the lowest score out of all City-owned properties.
The report also includes grades for five properties that are not owned by the City. The report stressed that property owners “have not necessarily been approached to discuss whether any of these locations are available to purchase or lease.”
The list includes the former Sears space in Gateway Mall, the Peavey Mart location on 15th Street East, and the former Rivier Academy building at 1405 Bishop Pascal Place, and 1525 – 15th Street East. The YWCA originally tried to build on the latter was the site in 2024, but their application was not considered after it failed to receive a seconder at a council meeting on Sept. 13, 2024.
None of the five locations were graded higher than 11 – 15th Street East. The highest grade went to the former Sears site, but it was ranked two points lower than 11 – 15th Street East due to a lack of available outdoor space.
Dinsdale’s report listed 11 – 15th Street East, 111 – 18th Street West, a site close to the current Stepping Stones Shelter, and the privately owned 1525 – Fifth Street East as the four properties the City should focus on. Dinsdale wrote that administration recommends formally writing to all property owners surrounding those four sites to encourage broader engagement.
Dinsdale also wrote that there is a high risk the provincial government “will not be able to continue to hold funding to relocate the emergency shelter is a decision on a location is not prioritized by the City.”
The province earmarked the funding for Prince Albert in April 2024.
The possibility of a downtown shelter was a hotly debated topic at the final community consultation meeting on Jan. 30. During the meeting, Prince Albert Downtown Business Improvement District Executive Director Rhonda Trusty said the City should be lobby for a Chronic Risk Treatment Facility to address addictions, drug use and mental health support instead of a new homeless shelter.
Trusty said a shelter is “a band-aid solution” that “does not fully address underlying addictions.” She added that opening a shelter in the downtown, even at the outskirts, would cause property values to drop, meaning other areas of the city would see their taxes go up.
“The financial burden our business community has struggled under, has been difficult enough without the added stress and perception nightmare this would cause our daycares, post secondary schools and local Downtown businesses and professional services,” Trusty said.
The Daily Herald reached out to Trusty for an interview Friday afternoon. She declined because she had not had a chance to read the report.
The Daily Herald also reached out to the office of Mayor Bill Powalinsky but did not receive a response by press time.
Brooks said the YWCA wants to work with business owners to ensure shelter clients aren’t hurting local businesses. She also the YWCA would also establish an advisory committee to work with downtown businesses and address any concerns.
“There’s actually things we can do to help enhance the downtown core,” Brooks said. “Part of life skills is we work with our clients with cleanup. They pick up garbage. They can do cleanup.
“We have 24-hour security that can patrol a few blocks around us to make sure that there isn’t some undesirable behaviour going on. For example, I know there are a lot of encampments that happen in the downtown core, especially in that 15th Street area behind the tracks. We can have security making sure that doesn’t happen. There are a lot of things that we can do to enhance the area we’re in. We want to work as a team.”
The Enhanced Emergency Shelter Consultation Results report is the last item on Monday’s executive committee agenda. The meeting starts at 4 p.m. in City Hall.
The City of Prince Albert estimates that around 300 individuals attended at least one community consultation in January. They estimated total attendance at around 500 because some residents attended more than one meeting.
The City received 1,650 responses to its survey.
