The current shelter in the Mountview neighbourhood has been in operation since 2003 (Photo: Sunrise House Youth Emergency Shelter)

By Shaun Penner

YOUTH EMERGENCY SHELTER

Sunrise House seeking City funding help for new shelter

Nov 5, 2019 | 1:37 PM

The Sunrise House Youth Emergency Shelter is hoping the City can help pitch in on the construction of their new shelter.

Members of the shelter’s staff presented to council at Monday’s meeting, asking for a $500,000 capital contribution towards the project, which the City has moved to 2020 budget deliberations.

The organization announced plans to build a new shelter back in September at the Big Hearts for Big Kids gala. It was announced at that time that they had a parcel of land on the west side of the City donated to them by local businessman Peter Tiechroeb where the future home can be built.

At that same event, a record amount of funds was raised to help get the ball rolling on the new shelter, including a major donation from John and Jodie Neudorf of NTL Pipelines.

The new shelter would bring much-needed space for the organization, as currently they are pretty well working above capacity.

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“Literally, we have run out of space. We have 12 beds, that’s spread across five bedrooms, and we have one floor,” said Tanya Wald, the shelter’s Executive Director. “So, any kind of programming, any kind of intake, everything happens in one space and on one floor.”

With that comes a lack of confidentiality and security, which is something the youth that are accessing the shelter are in need of.

“If someone comes in, everyone knows they are there. Everyone sees them,” said Wald. “If we have outside agencies coming in, if the RCMP or Children’s Services need to come in to meet with one of our kids, everyone knows they are being met with. It creates challenges.”

The donated lot is located on the west side of the city, in the area of 84 Avenue and 116 Street (in the new subdivision). The shelter’s President Richard Vanderzee says it would be a positive thing to move the shelter to that side of town, away from the downtown core.

“One of the main concerns that we have always had, as we looked around over the last three-four years is that a lot of the housing is closer to Rotary House, which is a risk to the youth. So, we wanted to get them a bit further away.”

“Not necessarily that it had to be that far away, but we still find that that’s good access to the school systems (and) businesses in the area. We’re trying to help the children as well, so they have access to employment.”

The board also asked both the County of Grande Prairie and the M.D. of Greenview for the same level of funding. The money would be used for construction, as well as the on-going operations of the organization.