‘They need help’: Leduc’s only homeless shelter at risk of closing despite council vote

A lease coming to an end, an expiring development permit, and no place to go.

That’s the “triple threat” facing the Leduc Hub homeless shelter – with the permit up in June and the lease not getting renewed in July.

To make matters worse, the Hub’s funding from the provincial government is slated to run out at the end of April.

“We have not been able, after months and months of looking, to find a suitable property in the City of Leduc where we can set up shelter services going forward,” said Brenda Reimer, board chair of the Leduc Hub Association.

Concern is growing that Leduc’s only shelter could have to shut down if a new location isn’t found soon.

That puts people like Joe, who’s been using the “Hub” for more than a year for warmth and safety, at risk.

“It means everything to me,” Joe said. “And it’s not even about me. It’s about the other people, it means everything to them. There are people that need this place desperately. I needed it and I had it and now I’m on my way out of it.

“They are such good people here, they are professionals, they know what they are doing.

“The Hub literally saved my life.”

At a heated meeting Monday that lasted more than four hours, city council passed a motion by a vote of 6-1 to commit support for uninterrupted shelter services.

There was so much support from the community for the Hub, Reimer said, that councillors had to expand into a different room inside the building for fire code reasons.

“The councillors said it was the largest group they had ever had in council chambers,” Reimer said, adding the presentation to city council was about maintaining their collaborative relationship.

“So what we were looking for was a public show of support for uninterrupted shelter services here in the City of Leduc, and thanks to the leadership of our council, that is what we got,” she said.

Joe, who moved to Alberta from Hamilton, Ont., to find work – which he did until he was let go – shared his story at the council meeting.

“I spoke as well as I possibly could because I can’t see well enough to write anything down, so I had to do it all from the top of my head,” he said. “And everything was from the heart and everything I said, I meant.”

Business owners blame homeless for property damage

Also sharing at the council meeting were Leduc business owners who say the homeless loiter and are responsible for property damage and drug overdoses in the area.

Mayor Bob Young recognizes that some business owners are not happy.

“There’s a lot of people that have strong feelings on both sides of this issue,” Young said. “We don’t want to see anybody left out on the street, but at the same time the businesses downtown are being impacted as well, so this is a really delicate and tough subject to deal with.

“It’s our mission to treat everybody with dignity and respect.”

Reimer acknowledges “there has been an impact to their businesses,” which is why the Hub wants to find an alternate location. That’s proved challenging for a few reasons.

“It’s very difficult to find a space that’s the right size, that meets the safety requirements that we need to house a shelter and have these day programs that are really truly the place where we get to know the clients and begin to provide the wraparound services that they need to continue on a path to healthy living – whether that’s from poverty to mental health issues, whether it’s from addiction,” Reimer said.

“The time that we have with our clients, with our staff, to build those relationships is really the key in the successes that we’ve had. We’ve been able to help many, many clients… who are sober, who have found housing, who are employed. And they would all credit the help that they’ve received at the Hub with helping them on that journey.”

The Leduc Hub Association has been working with the city for months, exploring several relocation options, including one promising space that did not work out.

“Council has decided to go in a different direction with that piece of property, which is their right and their ability to do that,” Reimer said. “And we hope to continue to work with them to find an alternate location that meets the needs of the business community, our clients and the greater City of Leduc.”

Reimer says the action taken by council is the “first step in continuing homeless services in Leduc.”

The city’s homelessness task force is now working to find solutions. The mayor says it will bring recommendations forward this spring.

Sharp increase in people needing services

The Hub can currently accommodate 10 people overnight because of the safety code. But it’s not enough to meet the growing demand, and the Hub is looking to expand capacity.

“They need more spaces they need more resources, they need help,” Joe said. “And the city and the mayor can help.”

“In the last couple of years, originally we were serving 30-40 individuals and we’ve just seen an increase in the number of individuals or people needing our services,” added Reimer. “So at this point our count is at roughly 85 that we know of that are homeless.”

Reimer says informal counts from the RCMP suggest there could be 95 homeless people in Leduc.

She says 80 per cent of those who use the space are from Leduc, with the other 20 per cent coming from smaller surrounding communities. She does not believe most people are migrating from Edmonton.

“There may be some, but it’s not an overwhelming number, which is a myth that is perpetuated in the community,” she said.

Mayor Young couldn’t say whether it’s because people are coming from Edmonton.

“It’s just that they are here and we have to deal with them,” he said.

The Leduc Hub Association also serves low-income individuals and seniors “who are just trying to get by,” Reimer said.

“So often there is the misconception that people are coming from outside of the city of Leduc to use the services, but what we have found, and it’s backed up by research, that we’ve seen some other locations is that 80 per cent of the clients that we serve are from Leduc,” Reimer reiterated.