A business group in Saskatoon’s Riversdale neighbourhood says it is pressing city hall to confirm that a temporary warming centre on Avenue C South will close as planned at the end of October, as officials finalize lease arrangements for a replacement site downtown.
Effie Kutsogiannis, who chairs the Riversdale Business Improvement District board, said she has been told by city officials that the women’s drop-in centre at 325 Avenue C South will close once a new location at 130 Idylwyld Drive is ready. City hall, through director of planning and development Lesley Anderson, has said the Avenue C site is “proposed” to close Oct. 31, with the Idylwyld Drive centre “proposed” to open Nov. 1. Kutsogiannis said her organization is not convinced the timeline will hold and wants the city held to its stated plan.
Lease Terms and City Costs
City hall purchased the former restaurant on Avenue C South using federal funding to convert it into a provincial drop-in centre offering warming in winter and cooling in summer. The site opened last year and was always described as temporary, drawing early criticism from groups including the Salvation Army, which operates a shelter next door.
Council’s finance committee is expected to vote on preliminary approval of a lease to the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation for the Idylwyld Drive building, set at $10 for one year for the 5,569-square-foot space, which can hold up to 150 people. The lease could be renewed for as long as five years. Anderson’s report to the committee says renovations at the building are expected to be finished within two weeks. If council approves the lease, the city’s cost is projected at $164,387.87 between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, which includes $25,000 for security along with below-market rent and a property tax exemption.
Business District Concerns
Council approved the Idylwyld Drive location in February, despite the YWCA’s plans to open a daycare nearby on Wall Street; that daycare, with space for 90 children, opened in the spring. Anderson’s report says city hall is expected to provide further detail on a “buffer” between the drop-in centre and the daycare, as well as on what will become of the Avenue C South building after it closes.
Kutsogiannis said the Idylwyld site remains close to Riversdale, a neighbourhood she said is also contending with an encampment on city-owned property at its western edge. She said the conditions around the current warming centre have not been good for the surrounding business or residential environment, citing social disorder and open drug use in the area.
Kutsogiannis said she is also concerned about separate plans for a winter warming centre at St. Mary’s Parish on 20th Street, given its proximity to St. Mary’s Education and Wellness Centre, which is also near a homeless encampment of roughly 60 tents on city-owned land. She said those tents have remained in place since June despite efforts by the Saskatoon Fire Department to clear the site, which were blocked by protesters last month. A Court of King’s Bench judge recently denied a request for an injunction to stop the city from clearing that encampment, though city hall has not disclosed its plans.
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