Not in our back yard say Vale Isle residents
Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Hay River (Jan 22/01) - The future of Hay River's recently-opened homeless shelter is up in the air after the town's public works manager issued a stop work order on the project.
"They can't use the building as of this afternoon," Mayor Duncan McNeill said last Wednesday at a public meeting on the future of the People's Place.
The shelter in a former convent opened last month without approval from Hay River council. That prompted the stop work order which creates an uncertain future for the shelter's two residents.
Tha mayor was speaking to about 60 residents of Hay River's old town met at the fire training centre on Vale Island to discuss the new homeless shelter in their neighbourhood.
Residents agreed that the shelter is a good idea, but not in their backyard. Mostly, the Vale Island residents were upset that they weren't consulted.
"The people making these decisions live in the new town, where property values will stay the same," said Eileen Angier. "I can't afford to lose $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 off the value of my property."
"We have rights in the old town and we're feeling a little trod upon here."
Tom Makepeace, director of the NWT Housing Corporation South Slave office, and Vern Jones, executive director of the Soaring Eagle Friendship Centre, sat in the hot seats.
"Is this is going to be a dumping ground for the new town to dump all the undesirables in the old town," asked Dorothy Hudson.
Steve Shebala asked if the centre would be prepared to exclude residents with violent criminal records and asked for a classification system, which would exclude newly-released prisoners.
Resident Bev Gibb echoed the concerns of many, saying the community should have been informed since the beginning, but invited the residents to work together on solutions.
"If it has any impact on the community, we should have known about it," Gibb said.
"But let's not shoot the idea, let's come up with something better. Your intentions were right but the process was wrong."
Makepeace said the new shelter is on a six-month probation. Jones invited residents to occupy three seats on the shelter's board of directors.
Hay River North MLA Paul Delory, flew in from Yellowknife for the meeting. He admitted there should have been more consultation in the process but admired the shelter committee for their efforts to find shelter for those without.
"Not many communities have the people that care enough to take the initiative that these people here have taken," Delory said.
"I'll be the first one to admit that maybe we did something wrong here.
"If we made some mistakes, then I think we should try and help them out and find some answers and get this project going," he said.
Please see related story on Page A10.
