Emergency shelter closes its doors
Pastor says facility was not serving its intended purpose
Meagan Leonard
Northern News Services
Thursday, July 2, 2015
INUVIK
Inuvik's emergency warming shelter is looking for a new home after the Anglican Church said it will no longer be opening its doors this winter.
For the past two winters, the Inuvik Anglican Church has accepted those turned away by the town's shelter. - Meagan Leonard/NNSL photo
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For the last two years, the church has provided additional accommodations for the community's homeless from November to May as way to offset the regular shelter, which does not accept those who are intoxicated.
Anglican pastor Stephen Martin said a number of factors contributed to the decision, including staffing and financial difficulties. He said when they got on board, the church anticipated more community support than it received during the endeavour.
"The church took a huge financial hit with heating, electricity and water costs," he said, adding the building itself was not designed for such a purpose on a long-term basis.
There was also a certain amount of personal strain, Martin said. Because all shelter-related issues were directed to him, it started to cause stress and concern for the safety of his family.
"We had people who were ejected from the shelter come walking right into my house ... we had people phoning the house trying to find out if their boyfriend was there," he said.
"It brought us into a place I didn't want to be in anymore. We had people walking into the house demanding things and, with young kids, that's concerning."
By the end of this past winter season, Martin said he felt the shelter was no longer serving its original purpose and doing more harm than good in the community.
"A lot of (youth) were saying, 'Maybe mom and dad don't like us drinking, but we don't have to go home because we can just crash at the church tonight,'" he said.
"We became the fallback ... a sort of cheap hotel for some of the younger folks in the community who want to go out and party."
Martin added the shelter at the church was only meant as a temporary fix, not a permanent solution and a more long-term plan needs to be developed to address the issue.
"We don't want people freezing on the streets, we wanted to stop that from happening," he said.
"But because we didn't come up with a three- or five-year plan, now we're looking at some of the serious implications this may have."
Mayor Floyd Roland said the town's regular shelter will remain operational, but it is uncertain whether its rules will become more lenient given the recent circumstances.
"The regular (shelter) is zero tolerance, no alcohol," he said.
"But the concern is during the very coldest time of the year, we have some folks who are beyond their ability to stay sober and are not allowed in the facility."
The warming shelter was designed as a place for these people to go, but this was being abused by some, Roland agreed.
"It became a place for younger people to go and crash ... it was not doing what it was intended to do," he said.
Going forward, Roland says the committee will be looking at alternative options, ideally establishing a new location before the cold season begins, but right now there have been no definitive developments.
"There will be ongoing discussions as to what options may be available to them and those will be held over the summer," he said.
Martin said previous to the warming shelter opening, Inuvik RCMP would take in intoxicated people. When this stopped for safety and liability reasons, the town's interagency committee approached him about lodgings at the church.
RCMP spokesperson Elenore Sturko told the Inuvik Drum the detachment will not be taking people in if the emergency shelter does not open, adding it is not the job of police to bring people into custody simply because they are homeless - only those who are intoxicated and causing a disturbance will be apprehended.
"The problems of homelessness cannot be solved by the police," she said.
"We will happily work with the town to find alternative solutions, but we are bound by the law and can only work within our mandate."
Having spent much of his career working with the homeless in Toronto, Martin says it is a cause close to his heart and he did not come to the decision lightly.
"The church still stands behind the idea of a homeless centre,
but we had to take a step back," he said.
"We're supposed to be helping people, but we can't do that if it's just a place where they hang out after they've been drinking all night ... it wasn't an easy decision. We made it as best we could."
