Councillors cite need to balance interests after shelter refusal

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This article was published 16/11/2023 (719 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation’s variance application to operate a downtown shelter was defeated, several Brandon city councillors said Wednesday it’s a good time for downtown stakeholders to have conversations about the neighbourhood’s future.

On Nov. 1, Brandon’s planning commission voted unanimously to deny the BNRC Blue Door program’s application to operate a 24-7 shelter at the former Red Cross building at 817 Rosser Ave.

At a public hearing, several representatives of downtown businesses spoke in opposition to the application, saying it was a poor location for such a facility to operate.

BNRC executive director Rushana Newman said earlier this week her organization would not be appealing the decision to Brandon City Council. On Wednesday, the Sun reached out to city councillors to see what they think Brandon could do to balance the need for social services while addressing businesses’ concerns about downtown revitalization.

Reached by phone, Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2) — the representative on city council for downtown Brandon — said though he recognizes the need to support people in Brandon dealing with housing and homelessness challenges, Rosser Avenue is not the right spot for the shelter.

“It not only is probably not an ideal location, but when we are trying desperately to keep the downtown as a viable business solution and an option for our community and the business community, it doesn’t send the right message to bring those challenges right out onto the main streets where we need businesses to stay,” Desjarlais said.

He said the desire to improve social services and promote downtown business aren’t mutually exclusive challenges. Improving homelessness, he said, would likely benefit downtown businesses.

Tackling both issues, he added, will require working with higher levels of government and expanding the delivery of trauma-informed responses to those who are struggling via security, mental health supports, policing, front-line services, establishing partnerships between stakeholders and introducing inclusive zoning requirements.

The councillor said the issues facing downtown Brandon are being experienced by a lot of other communities in the country.

He also said some of the issues facing downtown have been out of the city’s control, like Service Canada, Westoba Credit Union and TD Bank leaving or minimizing their presence in the neighbourhood.

“These are things that have happened that have had a dramatic effect on the amount of people that are coming to the downtown and it’s made it difficult for some of the businesses that used to rely on those patrons to stay afloat,” he said.

“We have to find a way to bring more human capacity back there and we do that through bringing more businesses to our downtown … because if we don’t, then we know we’re losing a huge chunk of our tax base and those taxes pay for social services.”

Asked if the city needs a more cohesive vision for downtown, Desjarlais said Brandon has set plenty of objectives for the neighbourhood through the Brandon Downtown Development Corporation, the BNRC, city council’s strategic plan and the newly revised downtown secondary plan.

“There’s a lot of vision that is in those plans,” he said. “I think that maybe we need to do a better job of staying focused on those objectives and making sure that the things we’re doing with the (downtown wellness and safety task force) and things we’re doing with BDDC, BNRC are filtering back into actual key objectives and goals that we have laid out.”

While he said the city has a vision for downtown, there’s only so much council can do. That’s especially in regard to housing and homelessness, unless it wants to get into the housing game itself.

Maybe it’s worth having that discussion, Desjarlais said, though he hasn’t explored the idea yet.

Towards the end of last year, city council received a list of recommendations from the downtown safety and wellness task force, which paused its activity for a year to work on implementing those recommendations.

When it reconvenes, Desjarlais said dialogue between stakeholders needs to continue and focus on finding solutions. He said the highest priority has to be reducing the number of individuals experiencing homelessness heading into the winter or else people could die.

It’s not the city’s role to directly run social services, Coun. Bruce Luebke (Ward 6) said, but it does provide support to those providing services via grants. However, he said it’s become evident to him in recent months there needs to be collaboration between non-profit organizations, social services and businesses.

“We do have to hear the concerns of our business partners and how it impacts them,” Luebke said. “And we also need to, look at things that help our transient population in the downtown area. There has to be a balance in those two things.”

Luebke said issues stemming from the concentration of social services downtown became more noticeable since the population of people experiencing homelessness in Brandon increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a similar vein, Coun. Tyson Tame (Ward 10) said trying to meet the city’s vulnerable population where they’re located in downtown Brandon while also trying to promote economic revitalization is a tightrope walk.

He said he didn’t want to say too much on the specific situation with the BNRC since city council may end up hearing an appeal. However, he said downtown Brandon is facing an identity crisis and it would be beneficial to establish a more concrete vision for the neighbourhood.

“Are we looking at revitalization or are we a social hub?” Tame said. “It’s hard to be both.”

He said he was hopeful Manitoba’s new provincial government might be open to extending Winnipeg’s Downtown Community Safety Partnership to Brandon. The Progressive Conservatives promised that if they were re-elected, but they ended up in opposition after the election.

Like Tame, Coun. Shaun Cameron (Ward 4) said he didn’t want to comment directly on the Blue Door situation because of the chance he will have to hear an appeal. However, he also talked about the difficult balance in downtown Brandon.

“One of the challenges with focusing all the social services or a large part of the social services in the downtown area is that it ultimately becomes a byproduct of some of the challenges there,” Cameron said.

“I think for me, it’s all about striking that balance, finding ways that we can still support business growth with tackling the housing challenge and tackling the homelessness challenge.”

Coun. Greg Hildebrand (Ward 5) said he was waiting to see if a solution could be worked out between the BNRC, downtown businesses and the two churches that offered to assist with shelter space in the short term.

“We need to make sure that all the voices are heard,” Hildebrand said. “We want to keep businesses downtown, we don’t want to develop any type of (an area) where businesses are scared to develop.”

By email, Coun. Heather Karrouze (Ward 1) was another voice calling for collaboration to find a suitable location for the Blue Door shelter.

“I know that Mayor Fawcett has been working extremely hard to help secure a location that will meet the need, while also being sensitive to the concerns of downtown business,” Karrouze said. “I believe it is an issue which should be addressed collaboratively by the city, by helping agencies, and by the downtown business community.”

Coun. Glen Parker (Ward 9) declined to comment, saying he might be required to hear an appeal on the application.

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