Neighbourhood in transition
Sources tell The Guardian that the building at 211 Euston St. in Charlottetown is being turned into community outreach centre
The vacant building on Euston Street that was once home to a sex shop is being turned into a community outreach centre, The Guardian has learned.
A number of sources say the provincial government is looking at the property at 211 Euston St., at the corner of Upper Hillsborough and Euston streets, as the location.
The first floor of the building was once home to the Taboo sex shop before closing in 2015 following a battle with city council over zoning issues and discontent from area residents. The location has been home to a few businesses since then but is not occupied at the moment.
Now, several parties are working with government to turn it into a community outreach centre – something that doesn’t exist in the city – that would take some of the pressure off places like Bedford MacDonald House and Anderson House.
One source said that while existing shelters in Charlottetown take people in at night and give them a place to stay, there is a desperate need to open a space that would have food and counselling services available during the day.
“Bedford house (for example) . . . . doesn’t have the capacity to be able to handle that,’’ one person familiar with the discussions said.
Mike Redmond, the residential manager at Bedford MacDonald House, declined to comment on what The Guardian was told, but he did say there is a situation that needs to be addressed.
Redmond said Bedford house, at one point, was dealing with one to two people during the daytime every day, people who had chronic homelessness issues. Lately, that number has grown to seven to 10 people per day. November alone saw 161 day-visits. Redmond said the people walking through the door are men, women and entire families, all looking for things like a shower, counselling, food and information on accessing services.
Sources say 211 Euston St., which would offer all those things, would operate between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. seven days a week, and be fully funded by the province.
There is also talk that Charlottetown’s Navigator Street Outreach program would operate out of the building. That’s a program that works with the homeless and panhandlers in the downtown core.
The Guardian did contact the Department of Social Development and Housing but no one from the department responded immediately to an interview request.
Meanwhile, the property next door – the apartment building at 217-221 Euston St. – is also being redeveloped. The building is currently boarded up.
Coun. Mitchell Tweel, who represents the area, said the building has a new owner whose plan is to fix up the building.
Tweel said the structure is currently boarded up “to keep people from getting inside’’ as per fire department regulations.
“(The fire department) makes sure they talk with the owner and give them a prerequisite of what needs to be done. No one is living in it now. The (new) owner just took over not too long ago, as I understand it.’’
The Guardian asked the city’s planning department who the new owner is, but a spokeswoman would only identify the owner as Red Island Estates Inc.
Regardless, Tweel is excited to see the property is going to be fixed up, although he couldn’t say whether the building will remain residential or if the units would be affordable housing.