YORKTON - There are weeks in which the front page of a local newspaper is truly a mirror of the good and the not so good in the community.
For Yorkton This Week, the May 4 edition is just that.
To begin with, the disheartening news, our city has the need to build a temporary shelter, because people here do not have permanent homes to go to each night.
And it is such a growing concern that the shelter being developed – see Page A1 – is planning to have up to 15 beds. That is preparing for what they expect to be a significant need in our city.
Now homelessness is not a problem specific to Yorkton. This is a problem of frankly epidemic proportions, with people finding themselves without a roof over their heads in communities across Canada and beyond, but for many in our city it has likely been viewed a big city issue.
The need for the soon-to-open shelter shatters that myth to bits.
The need should also have us all asking the question how this can happen in a country as affluent as Canada?
It’s not a municipal issue of course, although they can be part of the discussion and take the lead in creating change, but this is a problem that needs federal government attention and dollars.
Canada is a country where sleeping on the street, or going to bed hungry simply need not happen.
Of course the shelter story also shows the best of our community with the Prairie Harvest Employment Program stepping up to take the lead on filling the need for a temporary shelter.
As a community Yorkton has often answered the call to finance things needed here, the temporary shelter clearly one of the most glaring of those.
And, then there is the story of lights going in at Century Field. While not quite as significant in terms of community welfare as ensuring people have a bed with a roof over their heads in a safe place, it is another case of how the community can rally to a good cause.
There are many things which make a community, and not all of those things can be provided by any level of government.
Nor, can fees be so high that users can fund everything either.
That is where the community comes in. In the case of the lights the Kinsmen Club of Yorkton took the lead, (see story Page A1), and a bunch of businesses soon helped with the project.
It is the sort of community spirit that has helped bring a skateboard park to the city, have the grandstand rebuilt, and a hundred other amenities that make Yorkton the great place to be that it is.
That is why the temporary shelter should be expected to be a success because when asked for support Yorkton is the sort of place where help is usually just there for the asking if the project is important to our community.
