P.E.I. government plans to move Community Outreach Centre to Park Street shelter site

The provincially funded Community Outreach Centre, which started drawing complaints soon after moving into the former Charlottetown Curling Club building on Euston Street, is on the move again.

P.E.I. government officials say its new home, at least on a temporary basis, will be next to the province's overnight emergency shelter near the Hillsborough Bridge. That plan depends on the City of Charlottetown granting approval for a zoning variance to allow the move, however. 

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If city council approves the province's application, the government promises to close the current location on Euston Street within 60 days of that approval. 

"The reality is, there is no ideal location for this," Premier Dennis King said Friday after announcing the plan. "Anywhere there's services for harm reduction within centres anywhere that are located in proximity to residents and businesses, there are challenges, there are concerns, and we're working hard to address those."

The province also said Friday that it has named Carlene Donnelly as a senior advisor to review "programs and services for vulnerable Islanders." She will work with King and his cabinet.  

As well, the province is pledging to:

• Boost funding for Charlottetown Police Service to provide more services in the area;
• Appoint what it calls a Resident Support Team to work with nearby homeowners;
• Ensure there are "multiple clean-up crews to ensure garbage, debris, and paraphernalia are cleaned up in public spaces"; and
• Have "procedures and processes to work with clients who don't follow the accountability measures and respect for neighbours, community, and staff."

Housing Minister Rob Lantz said the Community Outreach Centre has been an issue "weighing on me and my staff for some time," adding that he was meeting with people living in the Park Street area immediately after Friday's press conference.

"What we're announcing today is not a solution to all of our problems. It's a step forward and maybe [will] help alleviate some of the issues that we've been dealing with," Lantz said.

"We've heard from many people in the field over months, and years, that it's essential that it be within a certain proximity to the urban core … Park Street is reasonably close and it's always been a location that's been at the top of our list for potential for this site, for these services."

Lantz added that there have been a "reasonably small number of complaints" regarding the emergency shelter services offered at Park Street, compared to concerns voiced about the Community Outreach Centre.

CBC News asked to speak with someone from the City of Charlottetown about Friday's development, but received two written statements from a city spokesperson instead.

"A three-month timeframe is a reasonable estimation of how long the major variance application process will take if the application is appropriately completed upon submission to the city and no IRAC [Island Regulatory and Appeal Commission] appeals are made," one of them said. 

The other statement said that while making support services accessible for vulnerable people is a priority for Charlottetown, the city believes it's better to "create a comprehensive plan to assess and address the needs and impact of a provincial outreach centre on a community, and the appropriate services and support for moving forward with such a facility."

The statement said the impact on police, fire, public works and parks and recreation services must be addressed as part of that process. 

Centre has moved around

This will be the fifth location for the centre since it first opened in January 2020 at 211 Euston St., serving Islanders needing access to financial assistance, counselling, employment, food and housing. 

The Adventure Group, which took over the centre's operation from the Salvation Army in April, 2022, had previously said Park Street would be a better location for the service than 241 Euston St., which the province bought in late 2021.

The current centre is next to the busy Ken's Corner intersection in the middle of a residential area with two schools nearby.

Police have been repeatedly called to the centre to handle fights among residents as well as deal with complaints about aggression aimed at neighbours, property damage and discarded needles. 

Roxanne Carter-Thompson, the Adventure Group's executive director, had suggested the centre could be put in one of the provincially owned buildings next to the Park Street shelter's modular units to provide 24-hour care for those experiencing homelessness.

At the news conference Friday, Carter-Thompson said the announcement to move the centre to Park Street makes her "more optimistic now than I have been in the last 18 months" that the Adventure Group has been running operations.

"A new location will provide us with an opportunity to reset and restart," she said. "A new space will allow us to deliver programs in a different way." 

Supporters have long pointed out that the centre should stay in a downtown location because most of its clients had no way to travel outside Charlottetown's core to access the services they need. 

Opposition takes aim at government plan

The Official Opposition Liberals were quick to react to the news. 

"It appears the government's solution is to move the Community Outreach Centre to another community and let it continue to operate the same way it has been," a news release from the party said late Friday morning. "Once again, this government has failed to do community consultation about their proposed relocation." 

The news release said deciding to simply change locations despite the "operational concerns that currently plague the centre" show the government is not truly committed to fixing what's wrong. 

"We are once again calling on the government to immediately begin the process of introducing improved sources of support, built on social license, and delivered by public sector workers. Secondly, we remain steadfast in asking the government to initiate a special assignment for the Office of the Auditor General to examine the affairs of the Community Outreach Centre."