The municipal planning commission has approved a permit application to allow a daytime homeless shelter to operate in a storefront on N. Railway Street, which was formerly the Mustard Seed and Champions Centre. The permit is good until the end of September.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A daytime homeless shelter will be allowed to set up on N. Railway Street storefront after Medicine Hat’s municipal planning commission was presented Wednesday with a plan to mitigate concerns brought up by neighbouring business.
That includes a staffing plan, a security guard for at least the first month of operation, an outline of capacity limits and a communications plan with neighbours and police, who say they’ll put a focus on the area.
That plan, presented by shelter operator McMan Family, Youth and Community Service executive director Tracie Mutschler, was called for by commission members earlier this month when they first dealt with the development permit application.
Such an approval would typically have been done by planning office staff (the use as “government services” aligns with the site’s zoning), but also came after a high-profile disagreement and successful appeal from business owners of the original location downtown.
Mutschler said her group has been temporarily offering space for shelter users at the Medicine Hat Curling Club during the delay in permitting the new site.
“We want to work quickly and we can resolve problems quickly,” she said. “We’re committed to being a good neighbour at this location.”
The facility is funded until the end of September by the provincial government as an emergency response during the pandemic, as most public buildings that homeless people use during the days are closed or under strict capacity limits.
However, business owners downtown objected to the use of a storefront on Third Street as a shelter after they say patrons harangued their staff and customers.
MPC member Pete Vanderham said the issue wasn’t about the need for the service, but how to quell potential conflicts.
“There’s no question that they will do a good job and do what they say they’ll do, but they don’t have control over the behaviour of the individuals they’re attending to,” he said. “That’s the big question for business owners.”
Mutschler said staff are trained in de-escalation techniques, an additional social worker is on loan from the Medicine Hat Public Library while that facility is closed to the public, and they have been in close contact with police, which will add foot patrols in the area this spring.
Capacity of the shelter is limited to 10 in total, including two to three staff members, due to AHS COVID rules, she said. Other agencies have also agreed to add services in case any shelter user is turned away due to space constraints.
“I’m pretty happy to see what we’ve seen today,” said commission vice-chair, Coun. Darren Hirsch. “The challenge for MPC is that we deal with land use. The concerns raised by both sides are community minded in nature.”
Jaime Rogers of the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society, which administers the grant, said approval “was the right decision after three weeks.
“We’re looking forward to moving forward and also towards a more long-term solution.”
City council earlier this month passed a resolution to investigate a permanent shelter location with local social service providers and petitioned the province to fund the effort.
Mutschler told the MPC that the North Railway location is not considered as a long-term location.
MPC chair Coun. Brian Varga said that body oversees land-use not the eventual land’s users, but he said problem would be addressed with a longer-term solution.
“The city is going to put its hands into this and do our part to mediate the problems,” he said.
