New Saskatoon wellness centre opens, downtown location to close its doors

Saskatoon’s new Emergency Wellness Centre, located in the city’s Fairhaven neighbourhood, has opened its doors and already has nearly 100 people staying there.

The Saskatoon Tribal Council runs the centre, and Tribal Chief Mark Arcand said over the last several days, residents from the old location have been moving to the new one.

The Fairhaven Wellness Centre. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

“We actually started moving in ‘relatives’ on Wednesday … We moved in 60 ‘relatives’ on the first night. Last night, we moved in another 37. So right now we’re at 97 ‘relatives’ ranging from families to men to women,” said Arcand.

The former church is divided into what Arcand called four “pods;” one for men, one for women, another for families, and the fourth for overflow. Inside each pod, or large room, there’s a small kitchen-type area with a microwave, fridge and stove.

There are two sets of washrooms on either side of the church, a TV room, two apartments at the back of the building used for shower and laundry facilities, a secure space to keep people’s belongings, and office space.

“We’re pretty happy,” said Arcand. “It took all of our staff through the transportation … at one of our outreach programs to transport people from (the) downtown location to here.”

Cots in overflow pod at the Saskatoon Wellness Centre on Dec. 2, 2022. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

Arcand said since the STC held four open houses to allow local residents, media and other members of the public to see the property, ask questions and know more about plans for the facility, he hasn’t heard any negative comments.

“We wanted to be respectful. We wanted to hear the concerns. We acknowledge those concerns. But let’s be honest, I’m not worried about those anymore. They had a chance to voice their opinion,” he said.

He said he believes they’ve got a good system in place and asked residents to trust him. If there are issues outside of the property, he said residents should contact Saskatoon police.

The new centre has a capacity of 106 people. It’s expected to reach that capacity Friday night.

Downtown wellness centre to close Sunday

Arcand said while he’s grateful for the funding the STC has received, it’s not enough to continue to run the downtown location the way he believes it should be.

“I don’t feel good about having people say they can only come in at 10 o’clock at night and leave at 10 o’clock in the morning. Those are one of the stipulations. Right now, it’s -30 outside. It’s not right, it’s not humane. We shouldn’t be kicking people out during the day and then telling to come back,” he said.

He said people there need to be fed and taken care of and they can’t do that according to warmup shelter rules.

“(We’re) pretty disappointed that the funding wasn’t to meet the needs of Saskatoon, but I think at the end of the day we have this place as an overflow and our outreach systems … will be driving around as they have been in the past couple of weeks, actually bringing people to our facility (and) actually keeping them warm,” he added.

He expects the downtown shelter to close Sunday.

“I think the whole system that they design in regards to these warmup shelters is wrong,” he maintained. “The strategic plan should have been done in June, July and saying, ‘This is who’s going to get money when it comes to Oct. 1 to March.’ ”

Already, he said, two people have died during cold weather events in Saskatoon.

“(That’s) two too many,” said Arcand.

The downtown emergency wellness centre, with 75 beds, opened its doors in December of 2021 as a way to help the growing number of homeless people in Saskatoon. Its lease with the City of Saskatoon remains in effect until March.