Just in time for winter
Street people once again have a place to call their own after four-month day shelter hiatus
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Friday, October 3, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
There was still sawdust caught between the cracks of the newly built wheelchair ramp as Yellowknife's new day shelter officially opened its doors Wednesday morning.
Lucy Black, left, and her partner, Tony Halkiewicz, came in from the cold to check out the new downtown day shelter on its opening day Wednesday. They're said they feel relieved the shelter has been re-opened after a four-month absence. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo |
But once inside, the smell of fresh paint was overpowered by the smell of freshly brewed coffee and donuts.
As flurries of snow blustered outside, it didn't seem to matter to the dozens of people sharing laughs and watching the History Channel on comfortable new ottomans and folding chairs that the building is still a work in progress.
Even if they aren't so fond of the lime green paint job, most visitors gathered inside the shelter are relieved Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority made good on its promise to open the shelter doors by the first of October.
"At least they said there was going to be a warm place to be and they did that," said Tony Halkiewicz, who frequented the Dene K'o Day Shelter on 52 Street several days a week before it closed May 31.
The new Safe Harbour Day Centre, now in the hands of the NWT Disabilities Council in the old Polar Parka building on the corner of 49 Street and 51 Avenue, has many of the same amenities as its predecessor - a television, washroom and telephone, as well as access to snacks, juice and coffee.
However, the building's 2,500 square-foot ground floor, where the shelter is housed, has more room and more seating. There are also plans to get more chairs and sofas once the shelter is better established. One visitor, who asked to be identified only as Jamie, said the extra space, in particular the additional seating, makes the facility more comfortable for shelter users.
"It's only the first day. Hopefully, it's going to progress," he said.
In the coming months, a second washroom will be built and there are plans for the building's top floor - a fully functioning kitchen and a place to offer programming such as cooking courses to the shelter's clients. Meanwhile, Food Rescue will continue to drop off food to the shelter three times a week, as it had previously done for the John Howard Society at Dene K'o.
While those improvements will be a welcome addition, Halkiewicz and his partner, Lucy Black, said just having somewhere to go to use the washroom is a welcome comfort.
"For a guy to pee, it's easy. But for a girl, it's a little bit different," said Halkiewicz.
Black added that a number of her friends had been picked up and ticketed by police for urinating in public over the course of the summer.
She said without a shelter, people on the street were forced into Centre Square Mall to escape the forest fire smoke.
"Over the whole summer, a lot of people got kicked out of the mall," said Black.
The Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority awarded the NWT Disabilities Council a two-year $619,000 contract earlier this summer.
In order to run the centre, the council has hired a staff of nine full-time and part-time employees with a range of experience in dealing with people with mental health and addictions issues.
When the council was running the Dene K'o Day Shelter for two months this past spring, it employed a security guard to help offer additional support to staff. However, when they took on the new contract, a decision was made to swap the security guard for an additional staff member, meaning there will be a minimum of three staff on duty seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Denise Mckee, executive director of the NWT Disabilities Council, said having someone trained in crisis intervention and trauma care was far more useful to the centre's clients than a security guard on duty.
Vidya Tripathi, a certified drugs and alcohol counsellor who also works at the Salvation Army, said she is excited at the opportunity to help clients she already knows.
On top of helping people work through their issues, Tripathi said her job is just as much about treating clients like any other person, as it is offering them help.
"They are human beings, even if they are staying on the street," she said.
As with the previous shelter, the new facility will offer clients the chance to receive counselling and medical attention. Employees will also be helping people write resumes and fill out applications for jobs, as well as linking them up with employers that need part-time workers. On Wednesday morning, two people at the centre were recruited by a contractor who showed up at the building looking for help.
"We are ready to assist them and do whatever is necessary," said Tripathi.
As happy as they are to have the support of dedicated staff, several visitors expressed concerns that the building's proximity to the liquor store would make it more convenient to access alcohol.
"They put it in the wrong location, but it's better than nothing," said one client who asked not to be named.
"I would have moved it a little further away (from the liquor store)," added Halkiewicz.
While people who are intoxicated will be allowed to access the centre, McKee emphasized that staff will have a zero tolerance policy toward bringing drugs or alcohol on site.
"(Clients) are happy with that, in that they feel safer and more respected when they are in there," she said.
McKee added that she hopes the renovations at the centre will be completed in the next five weeks. Once they are done, there will an official ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the facility.
"We're really hoping over the next few weeks, it turns into some place that really (provides)... a wrap-around service so that we can give the most support that we can to the individuals that are coming in," she said.
