Renovation work on a building that will become the new home for an organization that works with impoverished and homeless Edmontonians will soon begin, but Boyle Street Community Services’ plan to move out is met with opposition from some.
“Its current location is surrounded by vacant lots,” McCauley resident Alice Kos told Global News on Monday. “Wherever they intend to move, they will be surrounded by children and independent businesses.
“For me, that makes a big difference.”
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Kos is among several people, including other McCauley residents, the president of the Chinatown and Area Business Association and a representative of the National Federation of Ukraine in Edmonton, who have signed a press release raising concerns about Boyle Street’s plan to move. to its new location in the fall of 2023. Kos and others who put their names in the press release are also parents of children attending the Victoria School of the Arts, which is just a block from the future Boyle Street home. .
The press release, which was also sent to city council members, notes that many of the people Boyle Street works with are dealing with mental illness, substance abuse issues and behavioral issues.
“BSCS provides essential services to vulnerable people,” the press release says. “McCauley is recognized for her inclusion and compassion towards vulnerable people. But it is beyond McCauley’s ability to host additional social agencies.
“McCauley cannot accommodate Edmonton’s largest day shelter, particularly within a block of the city’s largest K-12 school.”
Elliott Tanti, senior manager of communications and engagement at BSCS, acknowledged that the press release “demonstrates that there is more work to be done with the community.”
“But in the end… we all want the same things. We want safer and more inclusive communities,” she said. “We need to work together to achieve those things.
“We understand there is some apprehension about the move.”
Tanti said BSCS had been looking for a new home because the organization’s current building was “falling apart.”
“It is constantly flooding. He is not fit for the work we have to do. It is inaccessible to our people.”
He noted that the new facility is only “a couple of blocks” from the current one, adding that it is important to note that the organization is not changing what it does and has experience doing so.
“We are simply relocating existing services,” Tanti said. “This is not about additional resources or additional services, this is about what we are currently doing, simply in a better way, in a more accessible and inclusive facility.
“I think there are a lot of factors impacting security in downtown Edmonton right now. And that’s why we as a society, as a city, need to focus on solutions, and why a facility like this new building for Boyle Street is exactly the kind of solution we need to address considerable community concerns.”
Critics of the relocation of the facility near Rogers Place stadium to 10010-107 A Ave. also raised concerns about the recent killings in Chinatown, where the man accused of the deaths was left in that area due to proximity to services. social services for people who were recently released. imprisonment.
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Critics of the move also said members of the McCauley and Chinatown communities were not properly consulted about the planned move, saying they were only told about it a day before it was announced to the media.
BSCS said it plans to participate in ongoing community involvement in the initiative.
Critics of the measure who wrote the recent press release said they believe the new location will see too much concentration of resources for vulnerable Edmontonians in one community.
“All of Edmonton’s 375 neighborhoods should be expected to demonstrate the same inclusion and compassion as McCauley,” the press release says. “And the BSCS must be supported by the city and the province to find an alternative home.”
“The problem is that we already experience problems due to social disorder due to the concentration of services in this area,” Kos said. “Three weeks ago, a woman pointed an ax at my three-year-old daughter when my husband was accompanying her to pick up my son from school.
“I have been in the crosswalk with my son. (We) witnessed a man who was clearly in an altered state of mind… accosting students and yelling in their faces as they left the bus stop to go to school.”
Hon Leong, president of the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative, said the new location’s proximity to young students is one of his concerns, along with what he sees as the potential for the new BSCS location to make Chinatown less accessible to people looking to shop and dine there. .
“Chinatown relies on 101st Street, and specifically the addresses of 105th Avenue and 106th Avenue and 107th Avenue to enter Chinatown,” he said. “So on the 105, there are currently some social services there, along the 106 is Hope Mission, and now on the 107 we’re talking about having Boyle Street Community Services.
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“You can see how these three main pathways into Chinatown are going to be obstructed by some of the people who are going to be visiting these spaces.”
In December 2021, BSCS announced their plans to move after reaching an agreement with Oilers Entertainment Group. OEG agreed to purchase the current Boyle Street property for $5 million, while the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation would donate $10 million toward the $28.5 million cost of the new center.
–With files from Sarah Komadina and Nicole Stillger, Global News
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