No permanent homeless shelter in Athabasca this winter after plan to convert building shelved
Dennis Kovtun | CBC News | Posted: December 13, 2022 3:30 PM | Last Updated: December 13, 2022
'A municipality as small as Athabasca is not going to fix rural homelessness,’ advocate says
A small northern Alberta town is preparing for another cold winter with no permanent homeless shelter.
Athabasca, about 150 kilometres north of Edmonton, has a population of about 3,000. Included in that number are more than 20 homeless people.
In August, a local benefactor gifted an almost 100-year-old downtown building to the Athabasca Cares Community Housing Society, a local organization that assists Athabasca's homeless people.
The society hopes to convert the building into a permanent homeless shelter and applied for a development permit shortly after taking possession of the building. In October, it convened a town hall meeting to present the project to the community.
Many of the attendees were local business owners who weren't in favour of the homeless shelter neighbouring their businesses, the town's mayor told CBC.
"The concerns by the community were basically centred around the location of the shelter, not so much as to the fact that they were objecting to a shelter," said Mayor Robert Balay.
Krystal Zahara, chair of Athabasca Cares Community Housing Society, said concerns focused on the potential for social disorder.
"These were all very valid concerns that people had as business owners and we respected those concerns because, at the end of the day, this has to be a community effort in order to solve the issue that we're facing in Athabasca."
As a result of the feedback provided during the town hall, the society pulled the development application. The project is now postponed.
Balay believes that when the project is better planned out and the society reapplies for the permit, it would gain greater community acceptance.
In the meantime, the building is being assessed for its suitability to be used as a shelter. It passed the structural and electrical inspections, but it also needs to be checked for other potential issues like asbestos and black mould.
The society is also working to dispel the worries of local business owners.
"We are doing the research right now and all we can do is address the concerns that were brought forward to us at the meeting at the time," Zahara said.
Rural homelessness
For the time being, the society runs its temporary overnight mat program, she said.
"A mat program is a very basic shelter — mats on the floor, come in, sleep so you don't freeze to death, and then leave in the morning."
Zahara would like to see more provincial and federal involvement in solving the issue of rural homelessness.
"A municipality as small as Athabasca is not going to fix rural homelessness … and when I say 'rural,' I don't mean Red Deer. I mean small towns that are facing this extremely complex issue and we need increased access to resources in small towns."
Balay agreed, noting more money has to be invested into proactive prevention of issues that lead to homelessness.
"The provincial government, [the] federal government, has to be willing to invest as they can and we will lobby for more investment, but it has to be meaningful investment."