BONNYVILLE – Having been open for just over a year, the Bonnyville men’s shelter has already seen its services utilized 1,808 times, between September of 2020 until now.
The numbers break down to the facility being accessed by nearly five people per day.
The shelter is designed to serve seven individuals at one time, however, there are two emergency overflow beds that can be made available.
As the winter months approach, staff at the Bonnyville Friendship Center work to secure funding to keep the men’s shelter operating. This means having to come up with $10,439 per month to cover the cost of rent, insurance, wages for overnight attendants, and three meals a day for the men residing at the shelter, among other expenses.
Last year, the Friendship Centre was able to secure a grant from the Alberta government for $75,000 as well as supplies and donations from the community, which allowed the Bonnyville men’s shelter to open.
The shelter also received COVID support funding, keeping the facility operating for the remainder of last year.
“But that came to a head and we exhausted all those funds,” said Janet Gobert, the community initiatives coordinator at the Bonnyville Friendship Centre.
In September, the men’s shelter received $15,000 from the Town of Bonnyville to keep the lights on and the doors open for the last month, while the centre’s staff looked to secure more funding.
Recently, the Indigenous Peoples Resilience Fund (IPRF) has given $30,000 to the shelter. With current funds, the men’s shelter now has enough support to run to the end of February.
“We are hoping for additional funding in order to have this ongoing,” explained Gobert. “But it seems that the grants and the calls for proposals come in influxes for a certain period and then they will dry up for a while, then it'll start again. We are starting to see more coming through again now, so that's positive.”
On Oct. 12, Gobert approached the previous Town council to request an additional $35,000 and to show how the centre is working on reducing operating costs in efforts to make the shelter more sustainable long term.
Addressing council, she said the rent was renegotiated to a lower rate and the Language and Cultural Program offered by the Friendship Centre was moved over to the shelter to offset some of the rent, which also removed the need to have daytime attendants at the shelter.
The Friendship Centre is still waiting to hear back from the Town on the status of their funding request.
New to operating a men’s shelter, Gobert said it is about making adjustments and finding efficiencies to make sure the facility can be a permanent feature that helps get local men back on their feet.
Life inside the shelter
Operating more so as a home than a typical shelter, the goal of the Bonnyville men’s shelter is to assist individuals in achieving stability and sustainability in a drug and alcohol-free environment while they work to move forward with their lives.
Men accessing the shelter are able to stay for a maximum of three months.
In that three-month period, Gobert explained, “They need to take part in our employment strategy program offered by the Friendship Centre, they need to volunteer minimum of three hours per day. They need to be actively searching for work and show me that they have been actively searching for work.”
She continued, “If there are addictions involved, we will make the appropriate referrals for those clients and we have a good relationship with the Bonnyville Indian-Métis Rehabilitation Centre. With that being said, not every individual that comes through there is a success story – that all comes down to choice.”
According to Gobert, some individuals access the shelter suffer from addiction and mental health issues and there are also those who have fallen on hard times or don’t earn enough to support themselves and are face housing insecurity.
With priority going to individuals from the Bonnyville region, roughly two out of every five intakes at the men’s shelter are men who have been laid off with no notice and do not have the financial means to tide them over until they are reemployed.
"What we are seeing is a trend of the economy, there are men that are losing their jobs that do not have the ‘You should have three months of your salary sitting in an account to fall back on,’ that is just not the case,” she said.
However, many of the shelter's past clients have not required the support from the shelter for the full three months.
“They're in there for a month to two months. They regain employment, they find themselves an apartment and they get back up on their feet,” said Gobert. “We've had more than several success cases of that where now they are working, they're asking if they can volunteer, or they're bringing us gift certificates for the men to go for haircuts, they're bringing in certificates to pick up a pair of work boots – they're giving back.”
Smiling Gobert said, “It's always nice to see them back, not in the shelter, of course, but giving back.”
When it comes to supporting the individuals accessing the shelter it is a mixed bag, she said, noting that not all of the individuals who have used the shelter have found success or chosen to stay.
“I make that very clear when I do an intake. We will put everything in place for him to succeed but it all comes down to choice. So, there are some individuals that come through and say, ‘This isn't working for me, it’s too structured.’ They choose to leave, that's on him. We're not a jail.”
Receiving placement requests for individuals from as far away as Edmonton, Cold Lake, Lac La Biche and Slave Lake, the level of service and ability to house and support individuals, comes down to funding.
“I believe that if we have one success story – one individual – it has a ripple effect throughout the community,” said Gobert. “It's a success for the community as well, not the just the individual.”
Access for everyone
Data compiled by the centre’s staff show, of the individuals who have used the shelter, 44 per cent are Indigenous, 12 per cent identify as Métis and 44 per cent are non-Indigenous.
Those able to access the shelter range from 18 to 70 years old, with the majority of those who access the shelter between the ages of 29 and 39.
Gobert said many people are under the assumption that the shelter, as well as other services offered by the Friendship Centre, such as the community kitchen and clothing depot, are only accessible by Indigenous Peoples.
“That is not the case. What our mandate is, is bridging the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people,” said Gobert. “I wish more people would be aware of that because homelessness is simply not an Indigenous issue within Bonnyville.”
Free Cree language classes
The Bonnyville Friendship Centre is offering a free six-week Cree language and culture course that will run out of the Bonnyville men's shelter from Nov. 3 to Dec. 8.
The workshops will be offered at two separate times on Wednesdays, one will begin at 8 a.m. and the other will start at 6:30 p.m.
Individuals registering must have proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within the last 72 hours as per the province's Restriction Exemption Program guidelines.
Spot are limited so those interested will have to register by emailing [email protected]
