Letter: Maybe it’s time to take a page out of Edmonton’s book on overnight shelters

By Letter to the Editor on September 20, 2022.

In response to the article “Overnight shelter future remains undetermined by city” in the Wednesday, Aug. 31, edition of the News.

Dear editor,

It seems a solution to finding a suitable place to have a shelter in Medicine Hat is difficult to find. I do understand that businesses and neighbourhoods find the impact of having a shelter near them to be negative.

I, as many, realize how important a shelter is. Imagine yourself or your child, your mom or dad, grandparents, your niece or nephew, aunt or uncle, needing a place to stay but not having the means to get it and no place to go. Where would you sleep? In a park, a bus shelter, maybe in a business entry? Terrifying! Where would you feel safe?

After watching where the shelter is located and watching what people feel is the impact on their business or neighbourhood, I get the idea people are stuck on the idea a shelter must be located downtown or in the River Flats.

Maybe it is time to take a page from Edmonton’s book. Certainly there is an empty warehouse on the perimeter, in any direction of Medicine Hat; so why not add to it some sinks and toilets, partition off some spaces with movable office-type walls and add some cots or pallets and lockers? And there we have a shelter in a location that should work for everyone. A five-star hotel is not needed, a clean, safe space to sleep certainly is. A bus could pick folks up once in the evening and take them to the shelter and in the morning make one trip to the downtown area and drop folks off where they get their breakfast. This would certainly solve the “where to locate a shelter” problem.

I understand the province has provided funding to the Mustard Seed for a shelter, so maybe the Mustard Seed and the City of Medicine Hat and some of the large, local businesses can get together and provide a little funding for a very simple renovation and a bus to make this happen.

Edmonton has a shelter located on the edge of their city and found that busing to and from once each morning and evening works quite well for people in their city. No business or neighbourhood problems. Maybe it is time to take a page from their book.

Shirley Greenfield

Medicine Hat

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