SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The chief operating officer for Stanton Territorial Hospital says he has no concerns about patient safety after the facility has started to allow homeless people to stay overnight in its lobby.

Florence Wedzin hugs her friend Anthony Paul Blackduck while they warm up in Stanton Territorial Hospital's lobby on Tuesday. Both of them said they take advantage of a new policy at the facility where homeless people are allowed to stay overnight in the lobby as long as they follow the rules. - John McFadden/NNSL photo

Colin Goodfellow, who took the position in September, said in a phone interview with Yellowknifer that people have been allowed to stay in the hospital lobby for about a month.

"It's not a shelter. But they can sit there and warm up. I decided that in consultation with the ER (emergency room) staff," Goodfellow said.

"Security in the ER has been an issue for a while. We identified that there were a number of people seeking admission to the emergency department, principally to get out from outside. Rather than oblige people to get picked up by an ambulance and dropped off at the emergency department or walking in and saying there's an issue - (I said) why don't we just let the people sit over here."

Goodfellow said there are more than enough seats in the lobby for the number of people who have taken advantage of the warm space. He estimates between four and eight people have stayed in the lobby on any given day or night. He said some of the visitors are regulars and some are not.

Initially with the new policy, a security guard monitored those in the lobby to make sure they were behaving but this practice has tapered off.

"It was done to establish behavioural norms and to reassure people - we understand that there may be some concern around security," Goodfellow said.

Feedback on the program thus far has been positive.

Violence in the emergency department became a hot-button issue in November 2014 when a patient went berserk in the emergency ward, smashing equipment and forcing staff to lock themselves in closets. It was revealed at that time security officers were not allowed to physically intervene in confrontations. That policy has since been modified.

Goodfellow said he wants homeless people to understand that shelters should be used first but if they are full - which has happened lately - Stanton's lobby is available.

"We're seeing how it's going," he said. "We are not offering any services, no counselling, no advice, we're not driving them somewhere. We have a warm space that will allow us to make the emergency department safer."

There were four homeless people in the lobby Tuesday when Yellowknifer stopped by over the noon hour.

One of them, Anthony Paul Blackduck, who is originally from Behchoko, said the hospital has done the right thing.

"It's safer here," he said. "They take our names down. I've only done it once but I have slept here on the floor in the lobby."

Florence Wedzin, also from Behchoko, was warming up with her friends. She said she is fine with the rules in place for people who want to stay in the lobby.

"First they look in your bag," she said. "If you have nothing then it's OK to sleep here. If you do have (alcohol) they dump it and then we go to sleep."

Wedzin said she's slept in the Stanton lobby every night for the past two weeks, and she prefers it to the shelter.

"People are crazy over there," she said. "They have to have consideration for people like us. We have feelings too."

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