The Mustard Seed community outreach centre on Allowance Avenue is the focus of a development hearing today to determine if the facility can be used as an overnight shelter this winter.--News Photo Collin Gallant
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Residents near a homeless outreach shelter on Allowance Avenue agree that a longer-term solution for homelessness and specific problems is needed, but still may oppose a temporary expansion to provide overnight facilities for cold-weather shelter.
That’s even as the province has promoted its plans to permanently conglomerate shelter services in the Hat at a yet-to-be-determined location that would hopefully insulate residential property owners from the problem behaviour.
“Temporary may as well mean permanent,” said Troy George, who lives across the street, and says he has installed security cameras and has often moved people off his property. “I want it gone.”
He plans to attend today’s municipal planning commission, 1:30 p.m. in city council chambers, which will hear a development permit application to allow temporary use of the Mustard Seed’s Community outreach centre as an overnight shelter this winter.
It currently acts as a daytime destination for those who use the Mustard Seed’s overnight shelter in the South Flats, among others.
Wayne Agnew lives next to the former Allowance Avenue church and says he can see where both sides are coming from.
“I know it’s tough on the residents surrounding it,” said Agnew on Tuesday afternoon. “Not everyone is a bad apple – there are a lot that are – but these problems don’t get solved overnight.
“From what I’ve seen, the staff are going above and beyond. Everyone is trying to do the best they can.”
Bob Palmer, who lives across the street, told the News he’ll oppose the plan to add overnight beds, as expanding the hours of the day shelter would, in his view, “bring problems 24-7.”
“It’s a required service, and we need it with what the world is coming to, but it should never have been located in a residential neighbourhood,” he said
Cypress-MLA Justin Wright has said that is the eventual plan.
He bluntly told a city committee meeting in December that the province has put aside $3 million for the ministry of Social Services, Housing and Seniors to find a suitable alternate location to build a permanent shelter and amalgamate the Mustard Seed’s services.
That won’t help with need this winter however, said Wright.
“The long-term plan is to get to one location, the Mustard Seed, at a different location that has mitigated impact for residents,” Wright said on Dec. 19.
Medicine Hat Community Housing is working with the province, but officials note the controversial nature of placing such social infrastructure in any area makes the work delicate. Wright, provincial Minister Jason Nixon and Mayor Linnsie Clark issued a joint statement about the plan earlier this month.
“We are collectively working on identifying a new permanent location for a shelter that mitigates the impacts on the surrounding community and neighbours. … We also remain committed to supporting people facing homelessness throughout the winter,” the statement read.
“We continue to work together closely with local residents and service agencies to ensure residents’ concerns are addressed and people can continue to access the services they need, as the search for a new permanent location of the Mustard Seed continues,” reads the joint statement.
Recent history of applications for homeless services has seen several proposals for day or night shelters, or even sober living transitional housing sites, denied, overturned on appeal or abandoned due to MPC-imposed restrictions.
In 2020, an emergency daytime shelter was closed downtown with the subdivision and appeal board siding with business owners who said the location detracted from the area and kept customers away.
