Housing group talks shelter standards

Shelter stock photo

The City of Lloydminster’s lack of housing was on full display during a public presentation regarding minimum shelter standards.

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“Lloyd is dying in housing,” said Becky Schille, executive director of The Olive Tree during the June 16 council meeting.

Schille and Kagan Kneen, executive director of the Lloydminster Men’s Shelter, representing The Housing Working Group, presented the minimum shelter standards to council.

Schille outlined the standards and their purposes.

“A framework that seeks to raise the bar for shelter services in our city and reflect both the needs of our most vulnerable and the concerns of the community,” she said.

Schille’s work began in January 2024 when she started looking into shelter standards after observing an increased demand for temporary housing services and a growing interest in establishing new shelters in Lloydminster.

“It became clear that we needed a consistent thoughtful approach to how emergency shelters are developed and operated,” said Schille.

She says the standards recognize shelters as a critical entry point to the broader housing continuum and must offer more than just temporary relief.

“They must provide real opportunities for people to move forward, to stability and independence,” said Schille.

The standards are intended to be aspirational in nature, providing advice and guidance to existing and future emergency shelters. The report outlines guiding principles for shelters.

“The guiding principles that run through every section emphasize respect, safety, equity and harm reduction,” she said. “These principles reflect what we’ve heard from residents.”

While the city doesn’t fund or run shelters Schille, says this is an opportunity for Lloyd to take the lead.

“By adopting and supporting these standards, Lloydminster has the opportunity to lead and demonstrate we are a city that takes care of all of its residents,” said Schille, hoping to see the standards adopted as best practice for the community.

Kneen also noted working closely with the city would help them if funding opportunities arise.

“When it comes to funding opportunities and asking for different grants, it helps saying ‘We work really closely with the city,” he said.

Coun. Jim Taylor asked where they were seeing these standards across the province.

“We’d like to see the provinces take the lead on this and put something forward,” said Schille. “I just kind of pulled shelter standards from city’s that were the same size as ours.”

Coun. Michael Diachuk was happy to see this document come to council.

“I think when members of our community are looking at any housing solutions within the community, there’s really a lack of confidence and fear of the unknown,” he said. “This document, I’m hoping, will create a sense of confidence in the fact all these organizations have worked together to put together a proposal to meet the needs in a way.”

Regardless of the documents existence and the efforts put in by non-profits, housing still remains a challenge.

“We could build hundreds of transitional houses and not meet the need,” said Schille. “For home-based, we’ve had great success. Our bottleneck is housing, always housing.”

When asked about the future of the document, Tracy Simpson, executive manager of community development services, said the city could provide support.

“The city doesn’t regulate shelters,” she said. “We have no authority over that industry, so the document is definitely a best practice. Something we would encourage and support and want to see in our community.”

Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers says this is an opportunity to advocate and spread the message.

“We could share this with other municipalities,” he said. “Bringing the level of government above us to the table and saying ‘listen, this is a solution that’s being driven locally but we need your support.

“Back to the funding and programming going forward, I think we can play a very key role in taking that message forward.”

Council accepted the report as information.

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Christian Apostolovski
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