A half-million-dollar plan to address social and safety concerns on city streets has received approval from Saskatoon city council.
At its meeting Monday night council approved the spending of $500,000 to hire five community support workers to monitor areas where there are issues of safety and panhandling.
The exact role that the workers will play and what their qualifications will be are yet to be defined.
Questions were raised about the amount of money being spent on the program, but business groups say it's a good investment.
The city says the money to fund the support worker program come from parking meter revenues and will not have an effect on property taxes.
