(Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Homeless shelter update

Shelter clients temporarily relocated to hotel while facility building being upgraded

Oct 1, 2021 | 6:45 PM

The clients at North Battleford’s homeless shelter, the Lighthouse Serving the Battlefords, now called Miywasin Kikanow, are temporarily being housed at the local Lone Star Hotel while the building is being assessed and upgraded in the coming weeks.

Those seeking shelter arriving at the facility will be transported by shuttle bus to the hotel at the current time.

The Lighthouse Serving the Battlefords was at risk of closing in March of this year due to lack of funding. Then, Métis Nation-Saskatchewan stepped up to provide funding until the end of September.

As announced Sept. 28, Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs Inc. (BATC) took over operations of the Lighthouse Service the Battlefords facility as of Oct. 1. The organization will lease the shelter from the Lighthouse Supported Living for the next six months on an interim basis, while the Lighthouse evaluates their service model to become a more community-based organization. The decision came about after months of discussions amongst the partners – BATC, Métis Nation–Saskatchewan (MN-S), the City of North Battleford, and the Lighthouse Supported Living.

The partnership aims to help ensure the service for the homeless will continue to be accessible after the MN-S funding for the Lighthouse Serving the Battlefords ended Sept. 30.

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Unfortunately, the transition itself did not proceed as smoothly as anticipated.

The current staff were being laid off by the Lighthouse in the process as they were being replaced.

“There are a number of complicating factors,” Jerome Hepfner, Lighthouse Supported Living board chair, said. “It was not just the meeting we had with the staff. At this point we are working with BATC to help work through that process.”

As another issue, after the staff were laid off, the last staff still on duty that day was reported to have vacated the building. The clients who were still inside the facility were not being supervised at this point, and managed to access the keys.

“There was some confusion about the events that happened last night [Thursday],” Hepfner said. “We are still doing our own due diligence, and trying to confirm facts at this point in time. There are lots of rumors out there right now and we are working through that process with BATC.”

The Lighthouse’s now former manager Judy Armstrong was taken aback when the staff member called to notify her after leaving the building unmanned Thursday evening, apparently when some clients became upset upon hearing all the staff would be leaving. Armstrong immediately advised a Lighthouse board member who attended the building, and informed BATC who came immediately. So Armstrong estimated it would have been only about 15 minutes before there was someone in authority back at the Lighthouse. She believes a TV in the common room was taken by one of the clients, from information she heard later.

Armstrong said it was hard for staff to find out only Thursday afternoon they would be losing their jobs, and wondered why they weren’t informed earlier. She said it was also difficult for the clients who developed trust and rapport with the staff members.

She said she does appreciate that BATC stepped up to keep the Lighthouse going, and is grateful for that.

“The good thing about this I always say is: The doors are staying open,” she said. “The clients will have a place to go.”

BATC Director of Operations Alexis Christensen said when BATC was alerted the staff left the building unmanned they responded immediately.

BATC managed to assemble a team of 20 individuals in less than 30 minutes and had the majority of the clients moved into the [Lone Star] hotel in under two hours,” she said. “We were expected to do the transition this morning [Oct. 1] at about 8 a.m. We got a call last night the Lighthouse staff walked out, and the residents had taken over the building.”

There were about 15 clients inside the facility at the time, she said.

Christensen said a locked cabinet was found opened and the alcohol inside, which is used for the client alcohol addiction management program, was missing. Police were notified.

“We already had a Plan B. So we moved everyone to the Lone Star. We have a full team of staff there 24-seven that will be helping monitor [everything]…,” she said.

“We anticipated a better transfer but after months on the calls and meetings, we knew we had to plan for a worst-case scenario. The staff will be all BATC, although a few Lighthouse staff reached out and we will be looking at hiring them to join our team,” she added.

Christensen said it is unfortunate the transfer of operations did not proceed as smoothly as expected.

“At the end of the day, I still believe this is the start of something really good,” she said. “So we are just going to move forward.”

She said in total about 40 shelter clients have now been relocated to the Lone Star Hotel in the interim, until the Lighthouse facility is available for use and some general upgrades have been made.

Currently, the shelter building is being assessed to ensure it is up to code. It will also need to be cleaned and renovated before it is ready to receive clients again. Christensen estimates clients may be at the hotel for about a month or a little longer at this time.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @battlefordsnow