SHELTER STORM?
Hope Mission plan comes under fire
It’s now up to the provincial government to decide the future of Hope Mission’s planned megashelter for the homeless in Edmonton.
The Christian charity wants to rebuild its aging men’s homeless shelter just north of downtown and has already raised $6 million from nearly 3,000 Edmonton residents.
But neighbours and the local McCauley Community League are against rebuilding one monolithic shelter. They want smaller shelters focused on rehousing people with privacy and dignity, and spread out where the need is throughout the city.
Now city council is on record saying it endorses that distributed model and the hot potato is in the air. It’s up to the province to decide what to do.
Hope Mission needs $8 million from the province in order to build.
“It comes back to dignity. I don’t know there’s dignity in putting people like that in a refugee camp,” said Greg Lane, president of the McCauley Community League.
“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a car crash . ... The province has to step up.”
The Herb Jamieson Centre was built by the province in the 1950s as a single men’s hostel and operated by the province until 1992, when Hope Mission got the contract. It was built for 249 people, which fire officials allow to increase up to 330 when needed.
The new facility would have cots for 400 people. It would also have a rooftop patio to help build community.
During a visit this week, the existing shelter looks worn and institutional, with steep worn steps at the entrance and no elevator. There are 10 dorm rooms, each with 11 narrow metal beds and 2½inch mattresses wrapped in plastic. Some of the rooms have bunk beds. The light blue walls are bare except for bed numbers.
None of the rooms have doors, and plans for the rebuilt shelter call for even less privacy.
“We want an open concept for safety,” said Hope Mission spokesman Joel Nikkel. “You’re responding to an incident, around a blind corner ... Our staff and people sleeping here, they don’t feel safe.”
Shelter co-ordinator Peter Garnis said shelter staff are focused on trying to get people out of homelessness. They meet with the men weekly, when possible, and try to build a relationship and refer them to housing, finance or health resources.
They’re only allowed to stay 60 to 90 days before being asked to leave and stay at the true emergency shelter — an open room with mats on the floor at the main Hope Mission building.
Neighbouring residents say the lack of dignity and privacy is a big part of the problem. They see people avoiding the shelter, sleeping in the river valley, behind buildings and along the LRT tracks instead. According to a 2016 city report, that costs Edmonton $1.7 million a year in cleanup costs.
But it’s not surprising considering the noise and lack of personal space in a shelter, plus the fact there’s no space for families or couples, said Phil O’Hara, past president of the community league. He wants the province to look at creative solutions, like the homeless villages that now exist in several American cities.
A small, private detached bedroom no bigger than a shed can be built and furnished for roughly $25,000. In the U.S. examples, a village also needs a washroom, common area with a basic kitchen, gathering space and internet access to help people look for work.
They have a fence, 24-hour security, basic rules set by the city and an opportunity for the village to govern itself. It’s considered a step between the street and permanent housing.
“We need a different model, getting away from the mat on the floor,” said O’Hara. “I refuse to believe that’s the best we can do.”
There’s a need in every part of the city, added his colleague Lane, pointing to people sleeping rough in ravines far from downtown. Others beg at traffic lights in the suburbs. “Homelessness is a regional problem.”
The zoning is already in place for a rebuild and the city’s arm’slength subdivision and development appeal board supported a city planning decision to grant a permit in July.
Hope Mission’s plans won’t come before city council. But the province has said it will look to Edmonton for guidance, and in August council endorsed the principle that services for people experiencing homelessness should be distributed where the need is.
It also endorsed the principle that new services should take into account their effect on the whole community, said Susan Coward, Edmonton’s manager of urban wellness and the city’s Recover plan.
At the province, Community and Social Services press secretary Samantha Power said no funding decisions have been made yet.