The public is being asked to help decide the fate of the Saint Lawrence Centre. The shelter is holding two public meetings this month to get feedback on a few different options for locations and ways to run the service in the future.
“Ultimately what we’re going to need is more of our supporters being on the same page and also to bring more community folks into understanding all the nuanced approaches to funding and finding a new space and we just want to do some more education,” says centre Project Lead Jared Gossen.
The daytime drop-in shelter itself has been homeless since it closed its doors at Rotary House at the end of March. Two months later it decided to find a new location but hasn’t had much luck.
A possible new home was found but due to push back from potential neighbours in June that location fell through. Gossen says while they are running low on time, they are looking at some other spaces and won’t give up.
“It’s a little bit scary to see that we’re still now in the middle of July and not having these things nailed down as a community but we’re not going to get anywhere sitting in the mud. We want to get our friends together, get people motivated and hopefully excited about finding some solutions.”
The first session will be held on July 11th at 7 p.m. at the Church of Christ on the corner of Resources Road and 92nd Avenue in Highland Park. The second is planned for the 25th at the same venue.