Shelter feud dominates Saskatoon council meeting [Video]

Saskatoon city councillors spent a majority of Wednesday’s regular business meeting discussing homelessness and issues surrounding emergency shelters.

Coun. Darren Hill tabled a motion asking police to bring back detailed crime statistics pertaining to the immediate area surrounding Saskatoon Tribal Council’s Emergency Wellness Centre on Fairmont Drive and what safety efforts and communication channels have been coordinated with the residents of Fairhaven.

“Unfortunately, we’re at a point in Fairhaven and the surrounding areas where we’ve been once bitten, twice shy,” said Rob Pearce, the pastor at nearby Fairmont Baptist Church. “And we feel that we have to take a stand that it needs to be closed, that a better solution needs to be found.”

Hill said the area has seen a roughly 1,100 per cent increase in crime in the areas surrounding the shelter year over year.

Pearce said there’s also plenty of crimes or dangerous situations that go unrecorded. …