Saskatoon mayor keeps his distance from homeless shelter clash

Saskatoon mayor Charlie Clark isn't putting himself in the middle of a controversy over the Saskatoon Tribal Council's Emergency Wellness Centre and a letter from one of his colleagues on council.

A day after Chief Mark Arcand lashed out at Ward 3 Coun. David Kirton for a letter he wrote to the province over homelessness, mental health and addictions concerns in the city, Clark chose to focus on the contents of the letter rather than the verbal volleys exchanged Tuesday.

"We have been partners working with the tribal council and community service providers and the province to try to address these issues, and that is a very important partnership," Clark said. "We know there's a huge amount of stress right now in our city."

Clark said he's spoken with Arcand and didn't know the contents of the letter before it was sent to the province last week or to the media this week.

He didn't agree with Kirton’s call for a review of the wellness centre.

"What it is time for is a review of how do we make sure we can get the people who cannot be housed at the wellness centre into a safe and stable place," Clark said.

That component of the shelter has been under repeated scrutiny from residents, advocates and politicians as a portion of people seeking shelter at the wellness centre are ineligible for a variety of reasons.

Clark supported Kirton's call for 100 spaces for those with the most complex needs as an immediate way of helping, but he said the city isn't able to write a cheque for $1.5 million as Arcand requested because social programming and health related matters are under provincial jurisdiction and not the city's jurisdiction.

"There's just simply no way the city can start to be seen as the body that can address some of these issues," Clark said.

The mayor did mention tax abatements, housing investments and other funding programs the city has offered to help the STC out.

"You talk about complex needs. You don't have a plan. You're just talking. It's not right," Arcand said Tuesday in regards to Kirton's letter.

Clark is looking for the city to be the appropriate partner, but knows little can change without meaningful investments from the province.

"We're also facing a $10 million deficit right now, which is not the case at the provincial level, and so we need to be realistic about what role we can actually take on or should take on, but we don't want to just make it someone else's problem," he said.

As the province repeats its messaging of giving people greater independence, Kirton feels having housing would help.

"You can't have greater independence if you're facing eviction, it just doesn't work," Kirton said.

Clark is waiting for the province to move on its position of restoring direct payment of rent and utilities for people on social assistance with the policy change in 2019 being pointed to as the top contributor to homelessness in the province by some advocates.

"I need to hear a compelling argument why that wouldn't work," Clark said.

With the police and fire departments noticing a nearly doubling of homeless people in Saskatoon, according to Clark, the homelessness crisis is far-reaching, and Clark made it clear the city has limitations on what it's able to do as provincial and federal programs leave plenty of gaps.

"The city has very limited levers," he said. "We're really just trying to facilitate the best outcomes."