Saskatoon city councillors are set to decide if they’ll take millions of dollars in federal funding to help pay for city hall’s new homelessness and encampment plan that could see construction start on a permanent emergency shelter in 2025.
The $4.5-million decision is on the agenda for Thursday’s special meeting of city council, which is being asked to approve a new Community Encampment Response Plan so the city can apply for the federal funding.
Saskatoon qualifies for $4.48 million under Ottawa’s Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampment Initiative. A city report outlines several ways that money would be used, including a permanent emergency shelter and a 30-unit supportive housing development.
The report stated that the projects would help “end the inefficient and urgent cycle of temporary efforts to provide safety, dignity, access, and navigation for Saskatoon residents experiencing unsheltered homelessness.”
The plan includes $275,000 toward a new permanent emergency shelter with 60 beds. Planning for the province-led project is underway, but its location hasn’t been decided. Construction could start in 2025.
About $3.8 million would go to construction of 30 supported housing units and a community space that would double as a cooling and warming centre when needed. The city wants to partner with an Indigenous-led organization to develop the project.
Another $400,000 would pay for a feasibility study on a community navigation centre, a hub that connects people experiencing homelessness to a range of services and resources.
To get the funding, the city has to match the spending. The report identifies several city-funded projects in the past two years — such as the public washroom pilot project launched this year — that could retroactively qualify under the federal initiative and lower the required matching contribution.
Temporary shelter over budget
Another emergency shelter is also on Thursday’s agenda.
The proposed home of the temporary emergency shelter in downtown Saskatoon needs more renovations than expected, more than doubling the construction budget to $535,000 and adding $75,000 in additional costs.
City council is set to vote on a city administration recommendation to use $360,000 from the capital expenditures reserve to cover the budget gap.
Ward 1 Coun. Kathryn MacDonald, Ward 2 Coun. Senos Timon, Ward 3 Coun. Robert Pearce, Ward 4 Coun. Troy Davies and Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer look on during a budget debate at a Saskatoon city council meeting on Dec. 2, 2024. (Trevor Bothorel/CBC News)
Upgrades to the mechanical and electrical systems are more extensive than originally planned, and since the building has been used for storage it “has limited heat and no ventilation,” so the upgrades will “ensure the building can be safely occupied,” according to the report.
Mayor Cynthia Block doesn’t want to see the project delayed.
“The [funding] request does not include any impact to property tax,” Block said on Wednesday. “So I think that would be a way that council may consider this, but I think that the need is very clear and so it’s my hope that we can go forward as quickly as possible.”
The province chose The Mustard Seed — a faith-based organization in Alberta that operates in several cities — to run the 35-bed shelter at 210 Pacific Avenue, and committed $250,000 to renovate the former Saskatchewan Transportation Corporation building now owned by the city.
The shelter is now set to open in March, according to the report. When the project came to city council for approval earlier this year, the original plan was to open the shelter this winter.
The report also recommends the city continue to negotiate funding with the provincial and federal governments to recover the $360,000, which would be returned to the capital expenditures reserve if successful. The city has $1.17 million in the reserve.
Those talks are ongoing, according to a statement from the Ministry of Social Services.
“The Government of Saskatchewan is working closely with the City of Saskatoon and other partners to support the opening of the temporary shelter, and these conversations continue,” the statement said.
The report also recommends city council give the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation an 18-month tax exemption for the shelter site. The estimated annual property tax bill for the site is $15,000.
