Jason Kerr and Daily Herald Staff
Prince Albert Downtown Business Improvement District (PADBID) executive director Rhonda Trusty has called on business owners in downtown area to reach out to their respective ward councilors and MLAs about the potential location for a new permanent homeless shelter.
The YWCA is considering the Grand Central Station on 15th Street East as one of several potential permanent locations as part of their consultation. In an update on Monday, Trusty wrote that YWCA representatives met with PADBID at the July 11 Board of Directors Meeting to discuss the location.
Trusty wrote that there are four main concerns with a new permanent shelter being located near the downtown. Among them are a potential increase in fires, a potential increase in violence, and the loss of business.
“Businesses rely upon customers to come down and buy their products, pay their staff, pay their overhead costs, and hopefully earn enough to cover off their personal expenses,” Trusty wrote. “People need to feel safe, and they will not with this proposal.”
Trusty wrote that the Exhibition Centre has seen an increase in fires since the Stepping Stones Shelter began operations, and the YWCA cannot guarantee the same won’t happen if a shelter opens downtown.
She also wrote that the proposed location is a highly visible route through the city. If built, she said, it would be front and centre in the business district.
She wrote that the downtown currently deals with around 30-40 chronic, high-risk addicts, and worried that violence would increase if unhoused residents began frequenting the area because it had a shelter in it.
“(The) loss of businesses in the Downtown – this is a potential reality as well,” Trusty wrote. “This will impact business. The decision to have a shelter in the Downtown may drive businesses out of the heart of our city. Our educational facilities will be concerned for student safety. Tourism will be impacted along with our Arts Centre and the history component of our district.”
Trusy added that PADBID has been lobbying the provincial government to change legislation to mandate treatment for people who are unable to make rational and logical decisions for themselves because of addictions or mental illness.
Coun. Dawn Kilmer is the City of Prince Albert’s representative on the PADBID board. She said there is broad agreement that Prince Albert needs a new homeless shelter, but disagreement about where to place it.
“It’s really difficult because no one ever wants something close to them,” Kilmer said. “They have fears, and maybe the fears are true to them. One thing I know about Prince Albert, is Prince Albert cares about each other, so we will see.”
Kilmer added that the City is still early in the consultation period, and nothing has come before council for approval.
“I don’t have a business, but as a city councillor, I feel we need a shelter, and soon,” Kilmer said.
YWCA executive director Donna Brooks said they are still working with the City on a permanent location. Ideally, they would like a building with enough room for 80 spaces. Their current contract is for 45, but Brooks said there is a need for more spaces.
Brooks also the YWCA would provide 24-hour security at any new shelter, just as they do with the shelter on the Exhibition Grounds.
She said the downtown makes the most sense for a new shelter because homeless residents will migrate downtown regardless of where the new shelter is.
“If we are close to downtown, we can help manage the problems,” she said. “If we’re close to downtown, we have public washrooms, we have the security, we have an area that they would be able to sit outside in rather than loiter in businesses. Our take is wherever we’re located, we can help manage the problem.”
“People will go downtown anyhow,” Brooks added. “That’s been proven in other cities. It just seems to be that people want to migrate to downtown, so our take is that if we are close to the downtown core, we can be part of the solution.”
In her letter, Trusty disagreed that residents with nowhere to go automatically head downtown.
“This population is territorial,” Trusty wrote. “If this shelter is built (downtown) the level of violence this may incur will be a challenge not only for our business district and our contracted security company, but for the police as well.”
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