Emergency shelter in North Battleford, Sask., faces closure

A North Battleford emergency shelter has been helping a lot of people like Karen Bear and Ron Neufeld this winter, but it’s worried it may soon have to close.

Earlier this month, Bear and Neufeld had a brief stay at the emergency shelter at the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre.

The Meadow Lake couple had previously spent five nights sleeping in a truck. They had sold their belongings just to put gas in the tank.

They told CBC they kept warm — during nights when the temperatures had fallen below -20 C — with blankets and going through a lot of gas.

"This is the first time in my life ... that I didn't have a place to call my own," Bear said.

They said they couldn't get help from Social Services because they had no fixed address, but fortunately the shelter was able to put them up for a short period.

Working on a shoestring budget of scraped-up cash and donations, it’s nothing elaborate — just a few mats and blankets put out at night in a corner of a multipurpose room.

Usually it takes care of six or seven people, but on some nights, as many as 16 stay there.

The couple was helped by Pastor Don Toovey, who’s with the Reclaim Outreach Centre, a group that’s working on setting up a permanent 10-bed shelter.

Now, Bear has found a job, Neufeld has a job interview lined up and they have found a basement apartment. They say people like them just need a little bit of help to get through a rough patch.

The Indian and Métis Friendship Centre has been running the temporary emergency shelter for the past two winters.

But the shelter is running out of money and officials say it will have to close at the end of January if no more money is found.

North Battleford Mayor Ian Hamilton says he is determined to find a way to keep the shelter open for another month, but is still working on a solution.

Hamilton agrees the struggle to set up a stable emergency shelter is a sign of the changes in the community.

The economy is on an upswing, the vacancy rate dropped to near zero and rents have shot up.

And the city has also been cracking down on derelict properties, the holdover from years of economic stagnation. Several houses have been torn down by order of the city after orders to fix them got no action. Homeless people were squatting in some of those derelict houses — and when they were torn down those people lost their only shelter.

Hamilton says the community has an obligation to keep people from freezing to death — to help people in need. He’s called a special council meeting Thursday to discuss what’s going to happen next.