'Give these people an opportunity': Saskatoon councillor suggests multiple addiction facilities for the city

Saskatoon’s Ward 3 councillor David Kirton says he supports calls from the Board of Police Commissioners and Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) Chief Mark Arcand for more resources to deal with addictions and homelessness.

Kirton said he wrote a letter to the province expressing the same sentiment and told CTV News many residents in the Fairhaven community have also written to the government to ask for help.

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“We have so many people with complex needs and nowhere to put them,” Kirton said. “There's no plan. We have a shelter, and if the people with complex needs, because of their addictions or mental health, get booted out of that shelter what happens to these people? There's been no plan now.”

At a wellness centre barbecue on Thursday, Arcand said the facility in Fairhaven is at capacity with 106 spots full. He is calling on the province for funding to create more resources for drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

“We need proper medical staff in place to deal with people in psychosis. We don’t have that here,” he said. “At the end of the day, we need that proper investment to really make sure that we’re helping people.”

Kirton agreed that there needed to be more help to get people on the right track.

“We need more low-barrier facilities. We really need to give these people an opportunity to have a roof over their heads. Then we'll start working with them to maybe help them become a productive member of society again.”

MULTI-FACETED FACILITIES

Saskatoon’s Board of Police Commissioners sent a letter to the province asking for more support for the city’s vulnerable population.

“Due to a lack of housing and facilities, officers are often left with no place to take people, and they are ultimately released back into the community without any form of support,” the letter reads.

The letter says the Community Support Program has seen a significant spike in people sleeping in building vestibules, encampments, sidewalks and parks.

Kirton said the facilities that are needed to overcome the problem would be large, with lots of staff.

“You're going to have security in there. You're going to have health workers in there. And it's 24-hour wraparound services for people who live in these facilities,” he explained.

“I know that they're not cheap, but I also know that it wouldn't work in a facility like the Wellness Centre.”

NEW FOCUS FOR WELLNESS CENTRE

Narrowing the focus for the wellness centre to be a family facility would benefit those in need and the community, Kirton said.

“There are so many families that are struggling to find housing and the like. I think that's what should be in a neighbourhood such as Fairhaven,” he said.

“If we just had that wellness centre as a family centre, I think it would be really great for the people who would be benefiting from it, but also for the residents of Fairhaven.”

Kirton also recommended creating smaller facilities to focus on helping single individuals.

“Whenever there's another centre built, it's got to be a much smaller centre. Maybe 30 people, that sort of thing because it's manageable then and it's manageable within a neighbourhood,” Kirton said.

“You could take a look at a walk-up apartment, for instance, and that could be a centre for those with complex needs. And there's a couple of examples of that in Saskatoon already, and they work really well. They fit within the community, and people don't even know they're there.”