Local shelters develop strategies as COVID cases spike

By COLLIN GALLANT on September 29, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

With colder weather coming and COVID cases still surging, anti-poverty advocates and social agencies in Medicine Hat are developing contingency strategies for homeless shelters.

With new capacity limits at businesses and public buildings, plus a notable increase in number of people “sleeping rough” (out of doors), officials say the goal is to connect homeless with housing.

A temporary daytime shelter closed its doors in late August – one month earlier than expected – and Jaime Rogers of Medicine Hat Community Housing says while service providers are currently “well aligned,” the system could be disrupted by a high number of COVID cases.

“We’re dealing with this as all businesses are, but it’s more difficult because we’re dealing with vulnerable populations,” she said, stressing a need to find a permanent solution beyond the pandemic.

“It has reignited the need for a daytime shelter.”

She says Community Housing has living space available, and the overall goal is to get an increased number of people into available housing. That would not only be to stabilize their situations, but to avoid potential infection or to help isolate those who become sick.

This month, the Salvation Army overnight shelter was listed as an outbreak site by AHS’s South zone.

That facility has just announced it will open during days on weekends for the use of overnight shelter users – a system employed this year at a temporary day-use shelter that became the focus of several controversies.

The news comes as the City of Medicine announced Monday it has wound up its own internal ad hoc working group to address controversy in the summer.

In Dec. 2020 the province released emergency funding for a daytime shelter as winter set in and most businesses and public buildings were under capacity restrictions.

However, an initial location near the corner of Third Street and Sixth Avenue, closed after nearby business owners successfully argued to the city’s subdivision appeal board that a development permit should not be renewed after three months.

A permit for a second location, on N. Railway Street, was allowed after McMan and partners presented a plan to mitigate conflicts between shelter users and neighbours.

In the meantime, an interim location was created in the Medicine Hat Curling Club.

A report to council’s public services committee this week states it has met initial tasks and identified the needs for a long-term strategy toward a permanent shelter.

Other items are being carried out by specific departments. City planning is studying the compatibility of placing social service agencies in the downtown area – long a discussion point with downtown business owners. Invest Medicine Hat is awaiting a new council term to seek direction for the issue as it relates to the city’s waterfront district.

As is, the issue has been left with community groups to move forward, said committee chair, Coun. Julie Friesen, who initially pushed for the working group to form.

It included municipal officials from the Invest, planning and community development offices, police inspector Brent Secondiak, and city councillor Kris Samraj.

Other members included former police chief Andy McGrogan as a public member and officials from the Medicine Hat Community Housing society, Medicine Hat Food Bank and Canadian Mental Health Association.

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