Yellowknife’s temporary shelter proposal divides city council

Si la ministre de la Santé et des Services sociaux du territoire, Julie Green, avait demandé aux citoyens de soutenir le projet dans une lettre ouverte il ya deux semaines, plusieurs commerçants du voisinage s’y sont touts fortement de mêpos Last.

The government is proposing to convert the recently used Aurora Village building on Franklin Street into a shelter for the capital’s homeless daily from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The temporary shelter should allow for increased capacity of the day center and activation center on 50th Street through the end of October 2024. A new permanent center collecting services should be built by then.

The Yellowknife Day Center and Alert Center are located in the same building that was already reaching its maximum capacity before the pandemic.

Photo: Radio Canada / Mario de Sisio

To establish the refuge, the government must obtain permission and approval from Yellowknife City Council.

According to the government, the shelter will provide its clients with meals, entertainment, restrooms and some recovery services.

The government also ensures that its employees are trained to defuse conflicts and that continuous patrols are conducted in the neighborhood to respond to residents’ concerns.

The two, while presenting the project, several consultants admitted to feeling between the tree and the bark in this profile. Consultant Steve Payne is one of them.

It’s a difficult decision for all of us. We will not be winners. If we accept, then one half of the city will be angry with us, but if we do not accept, it will be the other half who will resent us., He said.

The city council will have to make a decision at the meeting scheduled for October 4.

Yellowknife City Council will make its decision next week.

Photo: Radio Canada / Mario de Sisio

split plan

As part of a public consultation to obtain city approval, many businesses and residents have sent letters to the city council or government to express their concerns about the adverse effects the establishment could have and the clients it will attract to the shops.

Restaurants, cafes, and gyms struggle to keep up with profitable expenses , writes by Norma Nelson, Owner Breakaway Fitness, which is located in the corner of the proposed site. With the shelter next to the business proposal, the situation will only get worse and it will be very difficult for some of us to survive.

The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce and its president, Tim Sear, are also opposed to the shelter’s location.

It is believed that the minister is trying to divide the population and silence and intimidate anxious merchants by demanding the residents’ generosity.

The government has asked the public for help in recent weeks to provide them with options on where to set up the day shelter. The building on Franklin Street turned out to be the better option, according to the minister.

Photo: Graham Shishkoff/CBC

Others like Michael Fatt, Project Coordinator atcommon ground, a job placement program for the homeless, defends the site by saying that sheltering the most disadvantaged is of paramount importance.

He says there is no place in Yellowknife that will definitively solve the capital’s homelessness problem. More services are required, he says, but we must start establishing this center.

I don’t think it disturbs the place where the shelter issays Michael Fatt, who was himself homeless in Yellowknife. Homeless people will always gravitate toward money and alcohol.

By questioning Michael Fatt, Chancellor Nils Conge wanted to justify the traders’ concern by noting that they too are trying to survive and comparing their situation to that of the homeless. According to him, in both cases, the difficulties are explained by events outside their control, such as corporate health actions, traumas associated with decades of colonization and residential schools for the homeless. Nils Congee even compared the situation companies face to the scoop of the 1960s, comparing his later regrets as appalling and apologizing for it.