NORTH BATTLEFORD - Clients of the Lighthouse Serving the Battlefords are on the move to a local hotel following the transfer of operations to Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs this week.
Word from BATC on Thursday is that the current homeless shelter operations are being temporarily moved out of its existing Lighthouse building on 102nd Street, and relocated to the Lone Star Hotel on the Highway 16 bypass.
More than 40 clients have been moved, according to BATC. On their Facebook page they stated that BATC is offering shuttles, intake, case management and will be "working 24/7 to ensure this transition goes as well as possible."
The chaotic situation to move multiple clients out of the Lighthouse building unfolded just a couple of days after BATC announced it was stepping forward to take over shelter operations from the Lighthouse Serving the Battlefords. BATC was to lease the Lighthouse building and run the shelter operations there, while the Lighthouse evaluated their service model.
The early indications are that the handoff to BATC this week has not been a smooth one.
According to a post by BATC on their Facebook page, BATC confirmed they were supposed to transition Friday morning, but instead they got a call Thursday that the Lighthouse staff had walked out.
"We rushed down there only to find the residents, who even had staff keys, with the locked cabinets and their contents all gone. We had no choice but to move them so we could clean, fumigate and now do renovations. We have an entire team who work at the Lonestar 24/7. Trust us the responsibility is ours and ours alone here."
BATC has posted this further statement on Facebook about the transition of shelter operations to the Lone Star Hotel:
"Update: we were able to move over 40 clients to our new location in less than two hours. They were all met with case management and caring spaces. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call our director of operations, Alexis Christensen at (306) 480 6133.
"BATC has been on community calls with the Lighthouse, the City and the Métis Nation for over six months, not to mention the years and years of funding we provided. We were all trying to work towards a solution. The solution ended up being BATC stepping up to do the operations, as there was no other solution after October 1st.
"In what was supposed to be a caring and professional transition, it has been nothing short of heartbreaking at every turn.
"We will be back stronger and are certain this transfer was necessary. BATC is well known for our high level programming and we are deeply committed to doing the best we can."
This news comes just days after the announcement from BATC that they had stepped forward with funding to keep the homeless shelter operating past Sept. 30. That was the date that funding was due to run out from Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, who had previously stepped forward with interim funding to save the Lighthouse from closure earlier this year. The Lighthouse had announced plans to close in March after losing federal government funding before the MN-S funding came through.
