A2 March 27, 2013
Estevan Mercury
Ideas and information flow at housing symposium By Norm Park of The Mercury The need for affordable housing programs in Estevan is obvious, but a public symposium geared to address the issue attracted only a handful people to the small Legion Hall last Saturday afternoon. Those who did attend received a lot of information that included a few suggestions from Saskatoon MLA David Forbes, who is the NDP’s housing critic in the legislative assembly. “In the legislature my job is to criticize, to be negative if you will, but here today, we can discuss housing issues in a positive way,” he told about 15 people who had gathered to hear him along with Lieut. Brian Bobolo of the Salvation Army and Rev. Brenna Nickel of St. Paul’s United Church ,who are key members of the local Warm Welcome program that provides overnight shelter for Estevan’s homeless population. “There is a need for about 400 housing units, apartment type housing,” said Blair Shoenfeld, who served as emcee for the afternoon’s program. Nickel, who was introduced by Evelyn Johnson, pointed out that “people with houses means less strain on society. Estevan is growing and changing rapidly and we know this from our roads and other signs. Our church is right next to the bus depot and we have people stopping in once or twice a month asking if we know where they can stay because inexpensive hotel or motel rooms are not there. That’s why the Salvation Army and we started a shelter program to provide them with an overnight sleep with security. It’s not a live-in shelter,” Nickel said. The project that got underway this winter has now housed over 90 people (some repeat guests) but it will wind down after Easter. Because of the high rental rates, it’s a challenge for people newly arrived in Estevan to come up with a first and last month’s rental fee up front. They need to get some traction in the community, she said. A recent arrival from New Jersey, Nickel said “Estevan now competes with downtown Manhattan as far as rental rates go and there is no Metropolitan Opera House down the street here, so the needs are obvious and that’s why I’m proud of our Warm Welcome endeavour, but it needs improvement. Estevan is difficult to come to if you are an outsider. Housing is an issue here for a broad range of people and I’m referring to employed people. Awareness needs to be raised,” Nickel added. Bobolo said the Salvation Army and the shelter staff and volunteers deal with the “flip side of the boom.” The Army’s representative in Estevan said, “homelessness here is diverse, it’s different. Families are arriving
simply looking for work and housing. Many have already landed jobs, but they need help in bridging the gap.” Because most of the jobs in Estevan pay low to average wages, with rents constantly creeping up, it becomes a growing challenge for many and that means they could end up requiring counselling as well as housing as they strive to make ends meet, he said. “There is more to it than just providing a building. We also need a mechanism to reduce anxiety and depression that comes with the problem. You can’t last long as a couch surfer, especially if you’re not family.” Bobolo said the local food bank, Warm Welcome shelter and the opportunity for the homeless to get some fresh clothing and/or laundry facilities and a shower, along with a hot meal on occasion, means a lot. “These people end up becoming desperate for social contact, avoiding the homeless stigmas. They don’t need to go through life untouched, they need grounding, a foundation and acceptance,” Bobolo said. “They don’t feel equal, especially in a wealthy small city like Estevan. They’re not part of the landscape and Estevan can’t seem to wrap their minds around the fact that homelessness is here.” Bobolo said outdated food or stained old clothing that people sometimes try to donate to the food bank and shelter programs are immediately chucked. “We have to, for legal reasons and for dignity. We fight this public relations nightmare all the time and we’ll continue to fight that fight because these are people who are looking for an opportunity to contribute to the community and they know their chances are diminished when they’re dirty, smelly, unkempt. So they retreat, they hide and start to wear that label that others give them. They become experts in reading body language. Some can get creative and move forward. Others crash and burn.” Bobolo said the Salvation Army would support transitional housing programs and he provided some statistical evidence of how assistance programs have worked so far, including the 69 nights in the shelter, 200 overnight stays by about 90 people. They have also provided up to $14,000 worth of temporary hotel accommodations and $7,200 in food. On some evenings, those who required help were sent to Weyburn where accommodations were made available. Since Christmas the Salvation Army has had 945 people drop in for a daytime lunch, including 40 children and have been given over $1,000 in clothing and blankets and $700 for transportation and $1,000 for medications. Food bank use is up 10 per cent, he said, and will top $50,000 in value this year. “We need to be the eyes and ears for possible partnerships with these people,” said Bobolo. Forbes said he agreed that Estevan was unique and it, along with other communities, are just coming off a long,
POLL RESULTS Are you concerned with the city of Estevan’s current debt of roughly $37 million?
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Truck bypass included in budget again
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This poll was posted on www.estevanmercury.ca from Mar. 19 - Mar. 26
tough winter of disconnections. “With a vacancy rate of .6 per cent, it’s the lowest in the province and we have a government whose multi-family housing policy consists of giving a stern lecture to those who raise the rent too high, too fast,” he said. Forbes said with current policy ruling out rent controls, it was time to reach for other tools. “The rest of the province is watching Estevan, to see what you do. The Warm Welcome program was watched. People all over were asking what was going on. This is supposed to be a wealthy little city, what could go wrong here? It’s time we found out.” Forbes said the federal government had a housing program, but it’s now reduced, and he expected that a planned April 8 meeting in Estevan will help illuminate some proposals to address the local housing issues. “We need a wide range of opinions here. It can mean home ownership, young people having problems getting started, needing a stable start. After all, shelter is a basic right understood around the world. Churches are on the front line on this, but governments can’t be stepping back on this file, they need to step up.” Forbes said he agreed with Nickel regarding Saskatchewan’s cost of housing, citing recent migrations of PotashCorp executives from Chicago to Saskatoon where they were shocked at the cost and then rental rate increases in Saskatoon. “One executive told me, ‘at least in Chicago we had rent control.’” Forbes went on to say one piece of advice he could offer was that “when you build your housing plan, you make it for 30 years or more. Don’t let Estevan become another Uranium City. Don’t let the developers construct buildings that won’t last 10 years. You have two elected officials in your city who should be able to pull something into Estevan. It’s time to make them accountable. And remember when you tear down old buildings, you might be tearing down a low income person’s home. You have a responsibility here. Make sure your labour force is healthy, question the condominium versus apartment policies of the city, make a pitch for co-operative housing, don’t let developers have the out to switch apartments to condos by a simple phrase in a contract. Don’t fall into the condo trap. Ask if you need more incentives for developers to build apartments. Maybe a government needs to step up and build one.” Later, during an interview, Forbes suggested that in some communities, a corporation has stepped in and built a legacy apartment unit for its own employees. They would build and operate it for four or five years, providing housing for their people until stability was gained and then they would turn it over to the city or province to continue to operate within the social housing framework. “There are solutions. The current provincial government has a housing policy that has some merit, and can be a part of a growth pattern, but they fall down on the rental file and I know this drives the premier crazy because he knows that there are a lot of great landlords in Saskatchewan and then there are the outliers, so it’s not easy to fix, but somebody has to stand up and get moving.”
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This week’s poll question: Should high school student be required to provide 40 hours (or more) of unpaid volunteer service within the community before receiving a graduation certificate?
⇠A1 We are optimistic that they will do that and that would be great news.” The budget did allocate some funds for affordable
My name is Summer, I am a young female Shih Tzu,. I was just groomed aren’t I cute? Me and 2 other adult female dogs and 2 puppies were found north of Almeda on Hwy. 9 a few Mondays ago, we were left in a quilt to fend for ourselves, thank goodness someone found us. The puppies were only a few weeks old. We are all good now, we have been groomed , fed and given alot of TLC. We were hungry matted and in poor shape when we were found.
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My name is Ginger, I am one of the three dogs found by Alameda. I have 2 puppies so I will have to stay at the Humane Society for a while until my puppies are old enough to be adopted.
My name is Sophie the third dog to be rescued.
Puppies, one male and one female. Oh yeah we are cute!!!
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housing, which is also a major area of concern in Estevan. Ludwig said it was too early to tell how the funding might be able to help the local situation but added they are continuing to meet with the province to improve the situation. “We are still hoping and working with a developer to get something in the ground,” he said. “We will continue to work on affordable housing and move that forward because that is one of the biggest issues we have in our city.” The Estevan truck bypass was also mentioned in the budget and Ludwig said the City and RM of Estevan are continuing to meet monthly with the province to speed along the start of construction. Ludwig said he was happy to see the bypass is still a priority project for the province and is hopeful that construction will begin in 2013. However, he added the project is still bogged down in the land acquisition stage as only 50 per cent of landowners along the route have agreed on a sale with the province. “We will see where the rest of that goes,” he said. “I guess one option that would be available to the province would be expropriation. I’m not saying that to scare people, it’s just a natural progression if you can’t work out an agreement.”