The Lloydminster Men’s Shelter has celebrated 10 years of providing services in the community.
On Wednesday, the shelter had an open house, where members of the community took a tour of the facility and enjoyed a lunch in recognition of their support.
Currently, the shelter has two other programs aside from their main facility set up for the homeless in the community. One is the “Gibney House” that is a home for low-income workers and people who have barriers when it comes to living on their own. The second is the “Homes For All” program, where the shelter partners with landlords to provide accommodations for people from the shelter.
President of the Men’s Shelter Board Michael Stonhouse says over the 10 years the shelter has changed their mandate from providing space for transient men who needed a place to stay for a night and men who were starting a job looking for their own place.
“Now what we find is more and more men who have mental health and addictions issues and really we’re the only place. At one point in time particularly in Alberta there used to be halfway houses or group homes that kind of thing; those don’t exist anymore so this is it.”
The shelter receives 82 per cent of its funding from both provincial governments and the rest is from fundraising. Stonhouse says they would like to expand their services and space, but the money is a challenge. Looking ahead the shelter would like to work together with other organizations providing similar services.
“All of our agencies need to work together so there is us or Interval Home or the Olive Tree. All of us need to work together because we’re working with the same clientele, we’re working the same communities. We need to say how do we sort of harmonize our services, where are the gaps and how can we fill them.”