By Derek Cornet

Scattered Site receives municipal letter of support to relocate

Dec 13, 2018 | 4:00 PM

The Town of La Ronge has drafted a letter of support for the Scattered Site Outreach Program, which plans to purchase a building downtown sometime next year.

Community outreach worker, Modeste McKenzie, led a delegation at a regular council meeting Wednesday, where he asked for a letter of support for the move on behalf of the non-profit. As council didn’t express any major concerns about the endeavour, a motion to draft a letter in favour of it was passed by a unanimous vote.

McKenzie said receiving council’s support was the first step in moving forward with their plans.

“Scattered Sites and the extended hours program is extremely pleased, and we’re very happy they are supporting our bid and us in our relocation efforts,” he said. “It was probably one of the larger hurdles we were going to have to cross. We did that last night.”

Work will now begin to develop proposals to seek funding from various sources such as the federal and provincial governments. McKenzie noted out of three potential properties Scattered Sites examined, 916 La Ronge Ave seemed to meet their needs the most. He added an inspector will be brought in to examine the building and an appraisal will be done.

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Scattered Site will also be required to begin consultations with those living within 75 meters of the location. Other work still to do includes the creation of floor plans and a timeline for moving.

“There’s not a lot of money for temporary homeless emergency shelters, so we anticipate our budget will be small, but we think we’ll be able to pull this one off,” McKenzie said. “This is just the first step. We’re still going to have to go to [council] for official authorization before we move.”

Scattered Site is currently located across from La Ronge Medical Clinic and serves the tri-communities most vulnerable residents. The organization provides hot meals, a place to stay overnight during the coldest months, laundry facilities, assistance with employment opportunities, a needle exchange and more.

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno