Prince Albert’s winter response for unhoused and vulnerable residents saw close to 5,000 visits to the city’s warming centre this season, while officials and front-line providers say the work also exposed ongoing gaps in housing, overnight supports, and crisis response.
Anna Dinsdale, the city’s community safety and well-being manager, said the winter effort should be viewed as a broader community response rather than the work of one organization alone.
“I think that the winter response is simply not possible without the community partners that we have,” Dinsdale said, pointing to groups including the YWCA, Salvation Army, PAGC, River Bank Development, and Prince Albert Métis Women’s Association.
Dinsdale said the warming centre recorded close to 5,000 visits over roughly four and a half months, with the busiest periods coming in January and February. She said the city is also seeing results from its newer Mobile Complex Needs Team, which has had more than 1,000 contacts since beginning operations in October and now carries a caseload of more than 100 people with complex needs.
Major Ed Dean of the Salvation Army said the level of need remained high throughout the winter.
“Every night our warming center was full, and sometimes it was overflow,” Dean said. “In one particular month, we saw 230 some different individuals access the warming center.”
Dean said staff often had to bring people in batches until the building was full, then rotate others through to warm up before sending them back out. He said the centre operated with three staff most nights, sometimes four.
Despite the pressure, Dean said there were some important positives.
“It was a cold winter,” he said. “Fortunately, there’s some of the things to be celebrated. Nobody died. There were no overdoses, and there were no serious injuries.”
The season also included a major disruption when the Salvation Army building was damaged by fire on Christmas Day, forcing services to relocate. Dean said the incident highlighted the need for backup plans and alternate locations.
Following the fire, an emergency meeting was called that night with city staff and community partners to find a way to keep overnight services running. Prince Albert Grand Council Urban Services first stepped in with temporary space at the former Margo Fournier Centre before the warming centre later moved to the Union Hall.
Dinsdale said the fire was devastating for both the Salvation Army and the wider community, but said the speed of the response showed the strength of local partnerships.
“I think in total, only two hours of service were lost as a result that fire because of the response from community and partners,” she said.
Dindale said the move to Union Hall came with its own challenges. She said the site it is closer to residential areas and in a part of the city already under pressure from homelessness and encampments. One of the biggest issues, she said, was moving people along in the morning so any resulting problems were not concentrated in the area.
Both Dinsdale and Dean said housing remains the major longer-term problem.
“The biggest gap is housing, because a warming centre is not a home,” Dean said.
Dean added that Prince Albert also needs more affordable housing options and different types of spaces for different groups. He noted the city’s co-ed model can create additional challenges, while some other communities operate separate male and female warming centres.
Dinsdale said another major pressure point is the lack of overnight and after-hours service options for people who cannot safely remain in the warming centre because they may be a danger to themselves or others but who also do not necessarily belong in police custody or the emergency department.
Herald File Photo
The Future complex needs facility at 99 9th St East in Prince Albert is being developed as a short-term care option for people in crisis, helping address a broader gap in Prince Albert’s emergency response system.
She said the planned complex needs facility, expected to open in late summer or early fall, could help address part of that gap.
“If somebody is in the warming center, but they’re presenting a danger to themselves or other people, they can’t remain in the warming center,” Dinsdale said. “But where can they go? That’s a real challenge for the provider, because the only options really available after that are the emergency department or the police, depending on what that individual’s needs are, and that is where the complex needs facility will really help next year.”
Looking ahead, Dinsdale said the city is already in discussions with the province about funding for next winter and is working with community partners on what overnight warming services will look like next season.
Dean said the work should begin now.
“If we can have more people housed before winter,” he said, “that would be a great success story.”
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
