The Weyburn Ministerial, Envision and Victim Services have been working together on a solution to an unseen but urgent problem.

"The past couple of years I have been working with Victim Services from the south-east region and specifically with Tara Busch exploring the idea of a housing shelter for a variety of needs that exist locally," said Reverend Doctor Jay Mowchenko, Lead Pastor, Weyburn Free Methodist Church.

"I first got the idea for the housing shelter out of a process our church engages in on a fairly regular basis. The Free Methodist Chruch is very interested in serving the community, making the community a better place to live. We have this process where we go and interview community leaders and ask what they think is the most significant need in the community."

During his surveying process, Mowchenko talked to Tara Busch, Southeast Regional Victim Services Coordinator, about the need in Weyburn and she told Mowchenko that the biggest need she saw was housing for short-term extreme need.

"At that time there was also a deep concern over housing supply because there was a lot of people coming into Weyburn, because of the oil boom and so this idea of a housing shelter was covered under the overall concern for housing. but over the years this idea kept coming back to me."

Mowchenko explained how he felt that they needed to go slowly with the process in order to make a "made in Weyburn approach" work.

"So Tara and I have been talking about this for several years and just recently, we started talking to other agencies. We brought the Youth Centre into the conversation, we invited Envision to sit at the table, we consulted the bridge school. Out of that conversation, we realized we needed more research and in that conversation, I also discovered a network called community connections. Various community-helping agencies from government and non-government sit around a table several times a year and discuss whats going on in the city.

Busch surveyed that group and the responses were positive. 

Mowchenko talked about the urgency of the need that came from that survey.

"There is a significant need in our community for short-term emergency housing for people who are experiencing several different kinds of precipitating events."

He listed Couch Surfing young people who are not technically homeless, living on the streets but do not have a permanent living arrangement. Mowchenko also mentioned, "Transient people traveling through the city and Newcomers to Weyburn who need temporary housing until they can move into a more permanent option.

Mowchenko said that the highest need Weyburn has need of a Shelter solution for is for people in domestic violence situations.

"Our primary need is in the areas of domestic violence. there is a significant piece of police work that is being done, that is mediating domestic violence. If you're reading the police reports is a current theme there but if you're not reading the police reports you have no idea whats going on in our city. But our police are meditating regularly. People need a space to go even just to cool off never mind the people trying to get away to escape a situation."

Mowchenko is hoping to find consistent funding for the emergency shelter project, from government grants compared to having to regularly fundraise.

"Fundraising creates a somewhat unstable basis for an organization and if we want to do this properly we need to do something that's stable, that once we begin it will guarantee to be there."

Mowchenko is aware that planning for this project is going to continue for many months as the Emergency Housing Committee continue to work on the proposal part of the process.

Staffing of the Shelter has also been considered.

"We will be looking for paid staff as well as volunteers because this housing provision will be supervised. We will be needing people that have an interest in being support people as folks come in who need a place to stay.

Mowchenko and the Emergency Housing Committee are looking for feedback from Weyburn residents. Comments and concerns about the Shelter can be sent to jmowchenko@weyburnfmc.com.