Edmonton Journal

City OKs homeless shelter rebuild

McCauley Community League president vows to fight funding

- ELISE STOLTE

Hope Mission won the right Wednesday to tear down and rebuild the 50-year-old Herb Jamieson Centre, despite community concerns the concentrat­ion of homeless services is damaging the neighbourh­ood.

A decision from the city’s arm’slength subdivisio­n and developmen­t appeal board gives the not-for-profit agency the right to rebuild a structure with cots for 400 men at the 100 Street and 105A Avenue site.

But officials still need to raise $5.5 million more in private donations, plus convince government officials a matching $8-million investment is worthwhile.

“We really need housing for people, not mats,” said McCauley Community League president Phil O’Hara, promising to lobby against any funding that would keep Edmonton’s shelters and homeless facilities concentrat­ed in his neighbourh­ood.

At the appeal board meeting Wednesday, Hope Mission officials argued a new $16-million facility would improve safety by creating a new open concept inside with clear sight lines to the washrooms for staff and the men sleeping there.

It would also add boulevard trees to an otherwise barren street scape, add large office windows along the street and include a rooftop garden for the men.

“It’s going to be a much friendlier building to the street,” said architect Brian Allsopp, describing a new covered plaza outside for those staying at the facility.

“It will be an asset for the neighbourh­ood.” O’Hara argued Hope Mission should wait until the city’s urban wellness plan for the area is complete.

He said the shelter doesn’t fit with Edmonton’s goal of spreading non-market housing throughout the city, nor its plan to functional­ly end homelessne­ss by 2022. That plan calls for building supportive housing for the chronicall­y homeless and creating individual­ized plans to move every homeless person off the street.

“They deserve a place to call home.

“They don’t deserve to be on the street,” said Ratan Lawrence, executive director of the Chinatown Business Associatio­n.

When they don’t have homes, Lawrence said, they don’t have bathrooms, or a private place to warm up, drink or just sit.

“Because they are homeless, they have nowhere to go.”

Developers in the area said they’ve planned new hotels and condos on the assumption the city will clean up this area. Rebuilding the shelter will cause them to rethink that investment.

Bruce Reith, executive director of Hope Mission, said they could look at building smaller shelters across the city, but each neighbourh­ood will fight that. The 400 beds makes the current 350 permanent beds and 51 temporary mats in trailers all permanent.

The emergency service will be needed even if the city ends chronic homelessne­ss because most people staying at the centre are transient, he said.

In the last two years, 10,172 different men stayed at the shelter. Only four per cent of those men stayed longer than 30 days, Reith said. Most are passing through on their way to work in the oilpatch or to fight forest fires. “Basically, it’s a hostel,” he said. “We’re a safety net any time of the day or night,” he said, pointing to the three decommissi­oned ambulances the Hope Mission has ready to pick up people sleeping in bus shelters and needing help. Since last November, they’ve allowed people to sleep at the shelter during the day, too, if needed.

The appeal board released a verbal decision Wednesday. It denied the neighbours’ appeal of the city’s developmen­t permit.

A binding, written decision is to be released within 15 days.

 ?? SHAUGHN BUTTS ?? Hope Mission won approval Wednesday to rebuild the aging Herb Jamieson Centre, a short-term residence for the homeless.
SHAUGHN BUTTS Hope Mission won approval Wednesday to rebuild the aging Herb Jamieson Centre, a short-term residence for the homeless.

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