Uko Akpanuko
Daily Herald
The Stepping Stones Shelter will be closed for two weeks from Tuesday, July 23 to Tuesday, Aug. 6 for the Prince Albert Exhibition.
The City of Prince Albert and the YWCA made this known through a press release on Wednesday, July 17. YWCA CEO Donna Brooks said it’s not ideal, but other YWCA shelters will remain open.
“The people who would have needed to use the Stepping Stones Shelter won’t be able to access it,” Donna Brooks, the CEO of YWCA Prince Albert said. “But we still have shelters for women, children and youths, so if there is any of them needs a shelter we still have that in operation and will be available to them to use.”
In addition to the above shelter for women, children and youths, the YWCA staff will be available to provide outreach services such as provision of water, food and shelter for those in need. The outreach services will be available from noon to 8 p.m. daily to clients who would have normally accessed the Stepping Stone, the release said.
“This information has been communicated to our existing clients that will have need of the shelter during that period,” Brooks added. “Sadly, we have looked for alternative locations for a number of years but nobody stepped up with an alternative.”
The Stepping Stones Shelter is usually a winter shelter. This is the first time it has opened for the summer. Originally, it operated with 25 beds, but expanded to 40 in October 2023.
The President of the Prince Albert Exhibition Association, Greg Dionne said the YWCA had it in their contract that they would move during the exhibition.
“The YWCA has known for a long time that they were closing for those two weeks,” Dionne said. “The main reason it’s closing is that there’s no reason we can get them there. We’re a secured site during Exhibition. We have guards on (duty) because we tell people to come to the Ex that they’re going to be safe and secure, so we have to make sure everything is. When you look at a homeless shelter, there’s no way we can get them through the gates and into the shelter.”
Dionne said they notified the YWCA when they renewed the shelter agreement that they would need to close for two weeks in the summer. He said having a shelter operating during the exhibition wouldn’t mix.
“It’s going to close strictly because there is no way we can make it work wit the Exhibition open,” he said. “The Exhibition is secured site and you have to pay to get into the gate. We also do not want the general public and the clients from the homeless shelter mixing.”
Brooks said the YWCA will continue to care for the people who use the shelter when it’s closed. She also said not all homeless residents use the shelter.
“Alot of the people that the public sees on the street day in day out are not people who want help from Stepping Stones,” she explained. “They don’t use the shelter. There are different group of persons. Some of them want the services, some don’t. We will be out there looking for the clients that wants the services and try to provide them with the outreach services.”
The shelter will reopen on Aug. 6.
editorial@paherald.sk.ca
