P.E.I. government setting up special zone to keep shelter and outreach centre on Park Street

Gwyneth Egan · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 27, 2025 3:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

The province's exigency overnight structure and Community Outreach Centre volition proceed operating successful its existent determination wrong Charlottetown contempt a metropolis assembly ballot earlier this week, P.E.I.'s lodging curate says.

In an interrogation Thursday, Steven Myers said regulatory amendments person been enacted to make a peculiar readying country taking successful a ample crippled of onshore that includes the Park Street spot connected which the structure and outreach centre are located.

That gives the provincial authorities last accidental connected what happens wrong that zone, not the municipality of Charlottetown. 

"Effectively we're taking Charlottetown's improvement rights distant from the country and giving them to the authorities by creating a peculiar readying area," Minister Steven Myers told CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin. 

"From present forward, the Government of Prince Edward Island makes each the decisions connected that land. And it volition beryllium a shelter, similar I said from the start." 

On Tuesday night, Charlottetown metropolis assembly voted to cull the province's petition for an hold of a zoning alteration to screen the operations connected Park Street.

Approving it would person allowed some services to stay successful the country indefinitely, though the state had antecedently insisted the determination would beryllium temporary. 

"We person to bash what we tin to support susceptible radical and the occupation falls to maine due to the fact that the metropolis won't prime up its portion of the bargain," Myers said.  

"They had a accidental to bash the close happening and they chose not to instrumentality it. They took the coward's mode out. And I fixed it for them." 

'We tried to enactment with the city'

When asked wherefore the state didn't measurement successful sooner, Myers said: "There was ne'er a clip wherever we didn't person afloat power implicit this file."

He added: "We tried to archer the city, we tried to enactment with the city, we enactment unit connected this for days and days connected end. 

"We've fixed a batch of wealth to the City of Charlottetown to prosecute constabulary to constabulary conscionable that area. We've made offers to bargain houses successful the country if radical felt similar they couldn't unrecorded determination anymore."

Myers said the state has bought immoderate houses successful the Park Street area, and volition proceed to bargain them if homeowners privation to sell. Some neighbours and councillors person raised concerns astir loitering, cause usage and spot harm extracurricular the shelter's gates.   

"It's unfortunate due to the fact that we're not trying to interaction radical negatively, but we're besides trying to instrumentality attraction of a susceptible population," helium said, referring to the radical who usage the structure and outreach centre, galore of them struggling with intelligence wellness issues and addictions.

"The happening for america is we were told that the metropolis was going to woody with this. We were told that that was the champion portion of onshore by the city. We were told past that they were going to enactment with america and they agreed with everything we were doing there. And past they pulled the rug retired from underneath us."

Why it matters

A caller Point successful Time number conducted by the John Howard Society showed that the fig of unhoused radical crossed the Island has much than doubled since the past number 3 years earlier. 

Myers said that if the services provided done the structure and outreach centre connected Park Street were nary longer available, determination would beryllium much stateless encampments successful Charlottetown. 

"Courts crossed Canada person already ruled that you can't instrumentality [camps] down if you don't person a tenable sheltering to supply people, which we wouldn't," helium said. 

"Without those services, the radical are inactive going to beryllium there, and we're not going to person arsenic overmuch cognition astir the situations oregon the services that radical need, and we're not going to beryllium capable to assistance people."