SASKATOON – Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand wants to highlight the positive things happening since they began operation of the Emergency Wellness Centre last month.
In the spirit of transparency, there have been incidents of overdose, but with no deaths. Individuals who have overdosed received medical treatment, according to Arcand.
The centre has provided safe living conditions to 295 relatives, the term they use to indicate everyone is part of a family, or more than 1,500 beds used since they opened the doors Dec. 15. There have been seven relatives and one pet staying at the centre since it opened.
“Since Dec. 15, we’ve had 295 intakes. Whether that’s the same person coming back out for a couple days, it's still 295 people being registered here in four weeks … We’re maxed out at 50, probably 54 beds per night. The average stay of an individual is probably four to seven days, depending on what they’re doing,” said Arcand.
The centre starting its operations in mid-December was also timely as the city experienced almost two weeks of extreme cold weather conditions with temperatures reaching -40 C. Another winter storm warning is in effect with snowy weather and flurries from Monday night to early Tuesday morning.
Arcand also reported it has been more than two weeks since they experienced an overdose but, before that, there were 14 incidents of overdose including 10 happening inside the shelter while four were outside. All of the individuals who suffered overdoses were given medical treatment and survived.
He added they are making sure relatives staying in the facility take off their jackets and other winter gear, empty their pockets and leave their belongings inside the bins they have been providing in order to prevent drugs and other illegal substances being brought into the shelter.
“Dealing with needles and things like that, are really negative circumstances to the relatives and to the clients and to the staff. We don't allow anyone to use drugs or alcohol or smoke cigarettes inside of this facility. We don't judge people when they come through the door or what they do inside. But we’re trying to help them with their addiction issues,” said Arcand.
“But in the last 14 days, we've had zero overdoses, so relatives are starting to understand the rules. It is still coming with challenges, but that means we're eliminating people coming in and bringing their stuff inside and sneaking it in … we’re making sure that they can’t carry anything through and everyone is safe.”
However, Arcand wants to give emphasis to the good things that are coming out of the centre, such as how the community and other partners rallying behind them with donations — in kind and cash — have helped them operate to assist the most vulnerable members of the city overcome homelessness, addiction and mental health issues.
STC, overall, received $157,670 from private and corporate donors with United Way of Saskatoon and Area giving $65,000 and the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan and an anonymous donor providing $25,000 each. The Saskatoon Community Foundation ($20,000), Affinity Credit Union ($9,500) and SaskTel Pioneers ($3,000) were the other notable donors.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority administered COVID-19 and flu vaccines twice, and are scheduled to return Wednesday to continue promoting the benefits of the vaccines. The centre’s storage space was also filled with food and other donations even before the Christmas weekend.
“We had a pizza place donating 100 pizzas on Christmas Day. We've had families and elderly couples drop by with Christmas goodies. A dentist donated toothpaste and toothbrushes to the shelter. Everybody is chipping in to support the need of what's going on in Saskatoon. The bonus to all of this is, I think we open up at the right time because it's been a long cold snap for three weeks and very intense cold weather,” said Arcand.
Arcand added that the end goal to some of those who are staying in their facility is helping them overcome the challenges they are facing and getting them back on their feet. He mentioned at least eight people are homeless and have no addictions or alcohol problems while another 12 are on the path to recovery.
“And those are the ones we're really trying to work with to get them into housing and everything else. And when we talk about housing, we can say we housed four families that were here. There was a situation where an Indigenous family was evicted on Christmas Eve by a landlord. That's just unacceptable, he [landlord] couldn't wait till the end of the month. That's how bad it is out there for landlords not understanding. I've had landlords call and say I want to rent a place to [an individual in] the Wellness Center. So, we're checking all of these things,” said Arcand.
“We've had one mother and her kids back then as part of the shelter that will be going into housing as well. So, we looked at those successes in the first 28 days of being open about supporting the programs and services. Another big win for us is one of our relatives that actually has been hired on here as our maintenance, he’s actually on our payroll while he’s staying here. He was homeless and he doesn’t have addiction issues.”
Arcand said STC’s wellness program aims to employ and give opportunities to relatives in order for them to help and support themselves independently.
“These are all things that I think are really meaningful to the programs and services that STC runs. The good service that we have is through all of our programs [being] under one roof, so we can do employment training services, we can do housing, health programs. We have everything so it supports the bigger issues. We don’t have to go out there searching for a program and employment training services if people need work or get a job.”
