Mustard Seed confident in ability to run temporary Saskatoon shelter

For the first time since they were named as the provider by the City of Saskatoon to run a proposed downtown temporary homeless shelter, representatives from The Mustard Seed were made available at city hall on Monday to hear comments and questions from concerned businesses in the area.

The proposed temporary shelter is slated to be built at 210 Pacific Avenue — which is the former Saskatchewan Transportation Company building.

Karla Thiessen owns a clinic in the area where the proposed shelter would go and said she showed up to the meeting to express a couple of particular concerns about what would happen if the city decides that’s where the shelter should go.

“We’re concerned not only about our staff getting to their vehicles safely but also to our patients, of which a majority are kids. We just wanted to know what their plans were to keep us safe and supported if this did indeed go through,” Thiessen explained.

Thiessen said she’s mainly concerned about response times from first responders if something were to arise.

“My concern is if we do come across something that could be unsafe for our staff or patients, what would the response time be? Are we going to be coming into work every morning with drug paraphernalia outside and if so what is that response going to be? Is it going to be something we’re responsible to deal with and clean up or is it something they have the resources to deal with?”

Others speaking were concerned about the proximity of the shelter to the dance studio across the street.

Megan Schuring was representing The Mustard Seed at the meeting on Monday and suggested what she heard from business owners was nothing they hadn’t heard before.

“I think it went very well. It’s generally what we hear when we do community engagement such as this. People have fears, there are fears about a lot of things going on and I understand those fears,” she explained.

Schuring thinks the smaller shelter size compared to others will make things easier to run.

“With smaller shelters, it’s more manageable and I feel that it would be much better than the larger sites that they’ve been used to at this point,” she added.

The former Saskatchewan Transportation Company building in Saskatoon is a proposed location for a new homeless shelter in downtown. (Shane Clausing/650 CKOM)

Plan for 1:10 staff-to-patient ratio

Schuring isn’t as involved in the topic surrounding security, but she said having a plan in case anything arises is important.

The plan right now for staff is to have three people working at all times so there is a 1:10 staff-to-patient ratio. Schuring said that number is typical for the other shelters they run.

Last week, Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand criticized The Mustard Seed’s ability to run the shelter and claimed they know nothing about First Nations peoples.

Schuring said the group works with a lot of Indigenous people and they’re confident in their ability.

“I respect Chief Arcand, and he is an Indigenous man and I am not. We do work with a lot of Indigenous folks and we strive to find services or people that can assist us in helping folks,” she explained.

“If we don’t know how to do something — we aren’t going to fake it — we’re going to go out and get people to help us. It’s beneficial for us to all work together and we have 40 years of experience running shelters.”

Schuring said when it comes to Indigenous culture, they’re always trying to learn and never assume to know.

The vote on whether to approve the shelter will be on Sept. 25 at the city council.

During part of the discussions, City Manager Jeff Jorgenson admitted the process for the proposed shelter has been a little rushed.

“The decision to go with this exact location was only made a day or two before the announcement,” he said.

Jorgenson said they’ll continue recommending to the city council that this is a project they should proceed with.

“There is always going to be problems with every site we choose. We have a community crisis that needs to be dealt with and we’re thankful the province and Mustard Seed are bringing additional beds to Saskatoon and we’re doing everything we can to find a spot,” he said.

“Again, this is a temporary location — 18 months maximum — and we’re in the final due diligence of finding a longer-term site.”

Another meeting between those involved and the public is scheduled for Monday at 6:30 p.m.

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