Saskatoon moving forward with navigation hub to tackle homelessness

WATCH: The City of Saskatoon wants to build a navigation hub to address homelessness but the proposed timeline and location has some councillors feeling uneasy.

Plans for a homeless navigation hub are moving quickly at City Hall.

City councillors got a report updating the city’s progress towards an all-encompassing hub building to help the city’s homeless population, but a motion from Coun. Holly Kelleher has some of her colleagues feeling uncomfortable with the pace and direction of the project.

“This is premature,” Ward 1 Coun. Kathryn MacDonald said. “There’s an earlier step that needs to be fulfilled first before we can kind of tackle all of these.”

As part of an application for federal funding last year, the city sees a navigation hub as a key initiative to address homeless and fill identified gaps in the community.

On Wednesday, the governance and priorities committee was presented with a report from administration outlining a feasibility study for a community navigation hub. The hub would offer coordinated services, from basic hygiene like washrooms and laundry machines to stabilization needs and more intensive supports under one roof.

The hub could be a network of smaller hubs or one centralized hubs, which would include existing community organizations. The report explored construction for a new building, renovating an existing building or installing a mini hub within a civic building.

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However, after the information report was presented, Kelleher raised a motion to task administration with looking at partnerships with other organizations to help operate the hub, look at land options, construction details and develop an operating model before returning to council with an update in the spring.

“​This is meant to take a couple of options and drill into some of the details,” she said.

Keller’s motion signaled administration to move forward with one hub in mind, and that made some councillors uneasy without any time to mull over a decision.

“I would have rather seen a more fulsome debate on one big hub versus [multiple], because I think those were presented as future options in the report,” Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer said. “So, for us to make a decision on that today is a little concerning to me.”

City manager Jeff Jorgenson said while this gives administration clear direction, council ultimately has the final say and could look at other hubs if it so chooses.

“I think that this central navigation piece is really significant in the sense that it provides a one stop shop,” Mayor Cynthia Block said.

“What I worry about is trying to get alignment with other orders of government to help support this when you’re not going to get a hub model that is inclusive of everything in one location. Without it, I think we will fail.”

Administration identified somewhere between the downtown core and St. Paul’s hospital using 22nd Street and 19th Street as boundaries as a potential location because of the high volume of homeless people in the area.

Wednesday’s debate also reignited the east side- west side argument. The report says no services available on the east side is a regularly identified gap, and some councillors noted all social services being on one side of the river already.

“I also do have a concern of us only looking for one hub site that provides nothing to one side of the city,” Ward 6 Coun. Jasmin Parker said. “If we have it on the other side of the river, that tends to be kind of the boundary.”

“My only concern is this area is already accommodating a significant share of this social support,” Ward 2 Coun. Senos Timon said. “In the last couple of months being in this role, I had a lot of concern from residents and business about the concentration of services in one area.”

Costs range from $8.7 million to $32 million depending on the route council ultimately decides for the model, building type and size.

All plans assume the provincial government would support the plan. Similar hubs in Edmonton and Calgary are funded by the Alberta government for $3 million annually, according to the report.