Charlottetown shelter beds to move to Park Street mobile units

P.E.I.’s housing minister says a Charlottetown emergency shelter for individuals with substance abuse points can be shifting to the cellular residence models on Park Road.

The models had been initially introduced as a short lived answer for Charlottetown’s tent encampment residents.

Throughout query interval on Nov. 4, Social Improvement and Housing Minister Matthew MacKay was requested by Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly if Deacon Home, a nine-bed in a single day shelter on Weymouth Road, can be closing.

“That’s a vital service,” McNeilly advised the Home. “I have to know: Is that shifting on November twentieth?”

“We’re shifting these 9 beds from Deacon Home, sure, honourable member, however we’re not stopping there,” MacKay stated.

“We’re not closing beds; we’re going to increase.”

This isn’t the primary time the Deacon Home beds have been moved.

Previous to 2021, the in a single day shelter was operated by Well being P.E.I. close to the Hillsborough Hospital. In March of 2021, Opposition MLAs raised questions in regards to the state of disrepair at 130 Deacon Grove Ln., the place the shelter had been situated. The constructing’s furnace broke down in December 2020, forcing purchasers to briefly transfer out.

In June of 2021, the shelter was relocated to Smith Lodge, a supportive housing location on Weymouth Road. Its operation was later transferred to Social Improvement and Housing.

The shelter’s 9 beds had been typically not sufficient to satisfy the calls for final winter.

Chatting with reporters after query interval on Nov. 4, MacKay stated the Deacon Home beds could be moved to the Park Road cellular housing models.

There are at the moment 51 beds deliberate for that location. The models had been initially meant to offer in a single day housing for residents of assorted homeless encampments all through Charlottetown.

All people can be required to depart in the course of the hours of 8 a.m. to eight p.m.

MacKay stated the 9 beds at Smith Lodge will develop into transitional housing for people prepared to maneuver out of emergency shelters. These beds, which can be 18 in complete on the Weymouth St. location, can be operated by the Salvation Military.

“This can be a technique to hold all transitional beds in a single location,” MacKay stated.

“Deacon Home not exists. Although it is known as Deacon Home, it is in Smith Lodge now.”

The Smith Lodge beds will enable people to stay for as much as a yr. Medicine or alcohol consumption just isn’t permitted on-site however sobriety is not going to be required for people who stay there, MacKay’s division stated in an e-mail.

Plan quantities to ‘reshuffling’: McNeilly

Chatting with reporters, McNeilly stated the plan quantities to a “reshuffling” of homeless Islanders.

McNeilly stated he has talked to a person with mobility points who’s “very, very scared” in regards to the closure of Deacon Home.

McNeilly stated the province must increase the variety of transitional housing models.

“This isn’t a plan. That is only a reshuffling, one thing that advantages authorities,” McNeilly stated.

“We have to add to the inventory of transitional housing beds at Queens Arms and numerous different locations as a result of they have not managed that program correctly.”

McNeilly additionally stated a supply has advised him there are 634 homeless individuals in P.E.I. McNeilly wouldn’t establish the supply.

MacKay stated on Nov. 4 there are near 100 homeless Islanders, in line with the province’s Homeless People and Households Info System, an information data system utilized by numerous service suppliers.

In September, employees with MacKay’s division advised a standing committee this technique doesn’t monitor “hidden homeless” – people who’re couch-surfing or staying with household or pals.

No turnaways however no medication or alcohol

MacKay has stated no medication or alcohol might be consumed on the Park Road location. In an e-mail, a consultant of Social Improvement and Housing stated people who’re intoxicated can be admitted and stated an consumption course of can be accomplished “utilizing a security focus.”

MacKay has additionally hinted {that a} extra detailed plan is within the works for a 24-hour housing and daytime programming location. This future website, MacKay has stated, might additionally home a secure consumption website for people with substance points.

MacKay stated division employees wish to mannequin providers based mostly on Ottawa’s Shepherds of Good Hope, which operates these providers in a single location close to the Byward Market. The charity additionally operates supportive housing providers, together with hurt discount packages like managed alcohol providers, at different places.

MacKay has stated extra particulars can be introduced within the coming weeks.