STC chief says new report shows crime rates improving around Fairhaven shelter in recent months
Saskatoon police and fire report studies impact of shelter on surrounding neighbourhoods
Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) Chief Mark Arcand says a new crime statistics report provides validation of the work the STC is doing at its Emergency Wellness Centre (EWC) in the Fairhaven neighbourhood.
He also announced that the EWC has renewed its contract with the federal government and received another $4.2 million in funding to operate for the year.
The EWC has been controversial since it opened in December 2022, with some residents of Fairhaven and the Confederation neighbourhood saying it triggered a wave of property damage, vandalism and theft in the area. An online petition calling for the shelter to be moved has garnered more than 1,500 digital signatures.
In February, Saskatoon city council asked for a report from police and fire on crime statistics in the area. That report is now available and will be tabled at Wednesday's meeting of the city's governance and priorities committee.
"The stats and the data are showing that it's improving, going back to the levels of 2021 when people say there was no crime in these neighbourhoods," Arcand said at a news conference Friday.
The report says that violent crime has "fluctuated" in Fairhaven, with a spike the month before the opening and a few months after, but also that January 2024 only had one more incident than December 2021, a year before the shelter was opened.
Property crime doubled in Fairhaven after the shelter opened, but began decreasing in late summer 2022.
"The current timeline shows that it is decreasing back toward levels seen in 2021," the report says.
Meanwhile, assaults and robberies have increased in Confederation. Property crime also increased, but the report says a large part of that is due to one specific, unnamed business.
"The most significant increase was due to Shoplifting Under $5000 specifically at one commercial business. (751 incidents in 2023 occurred at a single commercial business)," the report says.
The shelter was available to anyone when it opened, but that changed in October 2023 when STC removed people with complex needs in favour of families.
"Since Oct. 1, when we made our decision to remove complex needs, the stats and the data is showing that [crime] is improving," Arcand said Friday.
Robert Pearce, a local pastor who has said he intends to run for the Ward 3 council seat in the upcoming November election, has previously called the shelter a "colossal failure" and called for it to be "defunded and closed until better solutions are created."
Pearce, whose Fairmont Baptist Church is just a few hundred metres from the wellness centre, previously wrote an open letter to Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and several government ministers detailing concerns about the centre, including "property damage, vandalism and thefts … costing us thousands of dollars."
Arcand said the new report shows crime has increased across the city, not just in the neighbourhoods around the shelter. He said people should celebrate the shelter's accomplishments and realize the problems are city-wide.
He pointed to other neighbourhoods like City Park, which doesn't have a shelter, but has more total crime than Fairhaven.
"It's not about the homeless people. It's about people not wanting the facility there," Arcand said.
The report also shows that the number of homeless encampments in Saskatoon has nearly doubled and overdoses are on pace to surpass last year's numbers.
It also looks at the types of calls for service police have been getting in the affected neighbourhoods.
"At least half the calls fell into the category of social disorder — suspicious people, intoxication, indecent exposure and disturbances," it says.
The most common call type is "suspicious person."
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