Outreach centre would be better fit in different location, says person who oversees it

The person who oversees P.E.I.'s Community Outreach Centre says the facility should move from its current location in downtown Charlottetown "in a perfect world."

Roxanne Carter-Thompson said she's been engaging with community members and trying to address their concerns — including those related to increased police presence in the area.

Charlottetown Police Services has hired two full-time officers who'll be responsible for safety at the centre and at the Park Street Emergency Shelter a few blocks away.

Carter-Thompson said police are sometimes there to engage with the people using the centre — and not always responding to incidents.

But ideally, she said, the outreach centre would go elsewhere.

"In the short term, I think that this could be a place to be able to at least start to work on some of the solutions. But in a perfect world, no, this would not be the place [where] we would want to offer and continue to offer programming.

"Would we ideally like to be at another location? Yes, we would."

The province bought the building on Euston Street, which used to be the Charlottetown Curling Club, to house the Community Outreach Centre in 2021. The services had been offered in a storefront at 211 Euston St. as a pilot project starting in January 2020, and the centre moved to two other spots before settling into the former curling club.

The centre helps people dealing with homelessness and opens the path to counselling, employment, food and housing services for community members who need them. Many are struggling with addiction.  

About 13 months ago, the Adventure Group, a registered charitable organization incorporated in 1992 to address the needs of young people and their parents, took over the day-to-day operations from the Salvation Army.

Discussions are happening with respect to wrap-around services and a dedicated site for those services to be together.— P.E.I. government spokesperson

Over the winter, the provincial government opened the Park Street emergency shelter to help address homelessness in the city. It is also planning to open a supervised injection site, possibly on Belmont Street.

In an statement to CBC News on Tuesday, provincial officials said talks are underway about where to go next.

"Discussions are happening with respect to wrap-around services and a dedicated site for those services to be together, as per the budget address," it said. "However, we haven't made any decisions at this time and won't until we go through a public engagement process."

Complaints from neighbours 

Neighbours of the Community Outreach Centre have long raised concerns about physical and verbal fights, drug use and public indecency around the centre, which is near two schools.

Mitch Tweel, the city councillor for the area, said he hears those concerns on a daily basis.

"People don't feel safe in their community anymore," he said. "Clients from the outreach centre are interfering with their peace and tranquillity. They're trespassing."

You wouldn't see this facility in Brighton and you wouldn't see it in Lewis Point Park.— Coun. Mitch Tweel

Tweel said the residents of the area deserve the same quality of life that exists in other parts of the city.

"You wouldn't see this facility in Brighton and you wouldn't see it in Lewis Point Park," he said.

Austin Crabbe said he understands the neighbours' concerns, but said they sometimes make him and other clients of the outreach centre feel unsafe by yelling at them.

"They're not going about it in a polite way," he said. 

Crabbe, who has been experiencing homelessness for a year, said the Euston Street location is convenient, and hopes everyone can learn to get along there.

"We're all humans and we all deserve respect."