LAC LA BICHE - A healing camp.
A new term and a new project was added last week to the ongoing plan to help homeless and vulnerable residents in the Lac La Biche area.
With some discussions held behind closed doors and others discussed in public settings over the last few months, the move to reduce the amount of homeless and vulnerable people in Lac La Biche County has moved forward in recent weeks. A healing camp is now being included as an additional facility that will work with a proposed, multi-resource treatment centre in the hamlet of Lac La Biche. The healing camp will operate from the existing homeless camp in the Bonesville residential subdivision five kilometres south of the Lac La Biche hamlet. A treatment facility, identified as a transitional housing service centre, was intended to be built within the hamlet, near 105 Street behind the Almac Motore Inn — but last week, municipal councillors rejected the location.
Finding solutions to support the vulnerable and homeless population’s in Lac La Biche County with shelter and wraparound services to improve their quality of life, has been the primary objective of a local Homeless Reduction Task Force since 2017.
News of the latest plans come five years after the local homeless task force was struck, and just months after the creation of a homeless camp on the piece of municipal land in the Bonesville subdivision. Last week, the most recent rendition of the task force announced it had plans to create two new facilities as opposed to a singular location.
Now called the Transitional Housing Task Force, the group is made up of more than a dozen community partners, including the Region 1 office of the Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA), the Lakeland Out of the Elements homeless shelter, other community partners along with county officials stakeholders. Métis Nation officials are expected to continue to operate the healing camp at the Bonesville location while the task force creates the community resource centre that will include temporary housing units and wrap-around resources to help with social and mental needs as well as workforce assistance and financial management.
MNA Region 1 vice president Jason Ekeberg says the healing camp idea is something that would help to bring Indigenous culture, history and spirit into the equation, helping those who want it.
The camp and the resource centre are a part of a four-stage plan to address the various stages that homeless and vulnerable people go through, from addiction and mental health support to to the final stages of being independent, said Anita Polturak, the manager of Lac La Biche County’s Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and task force partner. The two projects were fused together recently.
“Administration met with the Transitional Housing task Force and Mr. Ekeberg, to discuss the blending of the two programs. The Transitional Housing design encompasses four stages of programming; while the healing camp focuses on stages three and four.”
The future healing centre is an overlapping service that residents seeking that support will be able to access it, said Polturak.
“There was an acknowledgment that the healing camp will be an available addition to the services, but that not everyone may want to utilize the healing camp as a resource,” she said.
Cost, concept and layout
The task force will be purchasing multiple trailers that will be retrofitted to provide space for programming, group-use cooking, sleeping and office space. One trailer will be directed to the Bonesville site and retrofitted with a personal care facility, dining and kitchen space, garden shed and sleeping arrangements for on-site staff.
A budget of $375,000 has been approved to purchase and retrofit six portable trailers.
Funding for the project includes $225,000 from the county's Transitional Wraparound Services Centre Reserve and $150,000 of grant funding approved by the Rural Development Network (RDN)—that expires on March 31.
Building and preparing the sites will cost roughly $803,000, with an annual estimate of $616,000 for staffing and operational costs. More community grants and possible cost-share options with local organizations are possible ways to cover some of those costs, said Polturak.
"The set cost is for two sites, of which the full cost is $803,000 but we would anticipate that there would be other funding sources,” Polturak said.
In-town location
The location of the transitional housing resource area was initially selected by the task force and included in its public report that was released in July of 2021. The municipally-owned property behind the Almac was selected, say task force members, because of its close proximity to amenities.
Part of council’s recent decision against the site, however, was due to its proximity to schools.
“It also backs directly onto schools,” noted county councillor Charlyn Moore. “Teachers and parents alike have reached out time and time again before when the camps were just set up. A lot of reaching out this last week about their concerns,”
It could cause a security risk for children, parents and community members alike who have had to deal with issues from encampments before, said Moore, adding that she likes the idea of a centre in the community ... just not there.
Others on council suggested losing the in-town location completely.
Considering that the Bonesville site is operational and currently being used by the MNA to support homeless people, councillors Colette Borgun and Sterling Johnson suggested an expansion of services at that location rather than creating a space inside the hamlet.
Task force members, however, feel the two locations is a much better option for the social and mental well-being of the people being served.
Having two separate sites would reduce the chances of people in one stage of their programming being impacted by others. Creating an additional separate site for stages three and four—which is dedicated to creating solutions for vulnerable people and building independence—is a crucial part of the plan, said Ekeberg and Polturak.
“Regardless of how we look at it, we do need a spot in town where these people can go for safety and for security reasons,” said Ekeberg.
Wherever the location of the transitional centre is, it would be a fenced compound with only one entrance. While Polturak understands that there may be some community concern about locations, she emphasized that other existing services that deal with a similar clientele have been operating in the community for years.
“Out of the Elements (homeless shelter) has worked hard to be a good neighbour in the area that they are in already. By building relationships and making sure people who are using the program are respectful of their neighbours, and that they used those accesses the way they are intended to be used,” the new program will follow suit, she said.
Next steps
While council sent the task force back to the drawing board when it came to the local location, they approved ordering the materials and supporting the services of the task force.
The healing centre proposed for the Bonesville site also received approval to move forward.
The task force will return to provide council with more options for a facility in the hamlet of Lac La Biche to consider for approval in the near future. During the early planning stages, there were eight other locations discussed for a facility space. Much of the discussions about the location have been carried out by council and task force members behind closed doors.
Councillor Jason Stedman was frustrated by the delay on locations. He said enough time has been taken on the troubling issue of homelessness. He doesn’t want to see the progress slowed down.
“This has been months if not even years of work put on to this thing…This is something big that the community has never moved forward on before,” he said. “We have already started some great efforts on it and I actually look forward to implementing more of these things in the future here.”
The results of more private meetings and task force discussions are expected to be brought back to an upcoming council meeting.
