'Bunch of morons': Regina city council scraps location for permanent emergency shelter
CTV
Plans for Regina's new permanent emergency shelter were scrapped Wednesday after seven hours of deliberation by city council.
Plans for Regina’s new permanent emergency shelter were scrapped Wednesday after seven hours of deliberation by city council.
The meeting primarily jumped back and forth between two points:
That there is an immediate need for a permanent shelter space in order to combat Regina’s ongoing houselessness crisis.
The other was that businesses and property owners do not want a shelter going up in their neighbourhood due to concerns for community safety and economic impacts.
At the end of the day, the latter won in a vote of six to five. Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Stevens voted in favour of the shelter moving into his riding, and expressed frustration over the outcome.
“I think we look collectively like a bunch of morons. Administration went, they did good work, they put before us a recommendation, we brought that from executive, we had time to think about it, and then we spent however long on it when it could have been thirty minutes,” Stevens said.
The proposed location would have been on the corner of Albert Street and Dewdney Avenue, a spot council settled on after three years of searching. The lease on the current temporary shelter space will be up in July of 2025.
