Shelter and mat program for vulnerable soon to open in Cold Lake

A shelter headmanned by the City of Cold Lake and John Howard Society is set to open its door in the coming days. 

In October 2022, the City put aside a total of $625,000 in “unprecedented funding” to purchase a drilling work camp which would act as an emergency shelter for the vulnerable population to access during the cold winter months. 

The funding allows the John Howard Society (JHS) — which had its building close its door in the spring of 2022 — to operate a mat program, which could see up to 20 people use to sleep indoors for the night. 

Concerns about a rising number of homeless people camping or disturbing businesses escalated during the summer. Mayor Craig Copeland said city staff estimate close to 50 people were living rough and had established tent camps in and around Cold Lake. 

“The idea is to have a mat program where people are given a mat, and they can sleep there for the night and get everybody out of the elements and they will feed them also,” Copeland told Lakeland Connect. 

“Council came in with an aggressive policy that we don’t want any more of these tent camps around our city. And we also don’t want any loitering around the back alleys at night with that curfew that we’ve installed. So now, our bylaw officers and our RCMP can take these individuals and bring them over to the John Howard.” 

‘It’s a hand up’

Candice Sutterfield is a board member for JHS, one of several volunteers that interacts with these vulnerable people. They presented a delegation to city council in October 2022 and have worked together with staff to stand up this operation. 

“As a group of volunteers, we all work. We all have families, they’ll probably sit on other boards. So we’ve been working through our weekends or evenings trying to find other sustainable grants,” said Sutterfield. 

“Because really, the purpose of this was to prevent death from the elements. It just got so much bigger and badder [sic], because we all obviously realize it takes more than just protection from the elements for this to be successful.”

The drilling rig is located on 40th Avenue, near the city entrance on the southside. It was picked up in Grande Prairie and JHS received the keys on Dec. 22. 

Since then, they’ve been preparing to offer the mat program and the daytime outreach. 

“We really want to encourage the individuals we’re serving to seek the outreach, seek the support seeking individuals to help you either go to treatment, fill up those documentation that you might need for income or get you to where you need to be,” said Sutterfield, who adds it is not a 24-hour operation.

“It’s not a handout, it’s a hand up.” 

Funding has also been received from the province. The Rural Winter Emergency Response Program earmarked money for Cold Lake’s shelter program until the end of April, which will allow them to hire a cook to provide meals. A cleaner has also been hired, four to five overnight staff with two on shift at a time, as well as paid security on site for overnights. 

Much of the daytime work consists of helping access government supports. Whether that’s walking through the steps of getting an ID, finding their Alberta Health number, access to birth certificate, or even providing an address that allows a government application to go through — these are just a few of the things John Howard helps its clients with. 

Many of these individuals battle addictions or are developmentally delayed, but the backgrounds of their issues are not known, says Sutterfield. But there is no detox center in the Lakeland area, which is one of many barriers to give a hand up to those who need it. 

‘…It’s doubled across the board’

The rising issue of homelessness is not just a Cold Lake problem, it is growing across the province, and the country. 

“I’ve been canvassing other rural mat programs, they all say the same thing. It’s all doubled across the board. Our food banks have doubled in capacity as well. It’s not just like you build it [a shelter], they will come — I hear that all over the internet as well here as social media — that’s not really the case,” said Sutterfield. “It’s across the board.” 

Business owners have sent complaints to council about the rising sense of feeling unsafe while at work, many of them in the downtown area. 

City council also established curfews for loitering in back alleys in core commercial areas so that it is an offence to hang around from midnight to 6:00am in these areas. Penalties can be administered by either bylaw officers or the RCMP. 

Council also directed administration to further heighten the enforcement of safety concerns related to vagrancy, inclusive of loitering, public intoxication, public disturbances, sleeping in public places, panhandling, as well as unpermitted camping and unpermitted fires.

“Is this something that the municipality should be in the business of doing? In the old days, we would say no, but unfortunately, it’s another download,” he said. 

“People don’t realize that there is a tremendous download of services now to the municipalities and so you can decide to get into this sandbox and so our council did.”

Moving forward, city dollars were also dedicated to helping JHS with its mobile outreach program.

From the City’s Social Inclusion and Infrastructure Grant Program, $100,000 is set aside to meet the unhoused where they are and will allow the group to overcome the lack of a facility and reach the vulnerable population where they are beyond the winter months.