🎥 One Year Later - Still No New Shelter Location
Medicine Hat has a task force with over 20 members dedicated to addressing social disorder. It has been meeting for well over a year and has accomplished almost nothing. The Resilient and Inclusive Community Task Force was created in March 2025. Its goal: develop strategies to reduce the impacts of homelessness and addiction. Finding a new shelter location was a top priority.
Task Force Accomplishments
August 2025 - Owl News
A year ago, on August 28, 2025, the City issued a notice announcing they and the Mustard Seed had agreed to explore 2055 Saamis Drive NW as a potential new shelter location.
The Mustard Seed withdrew their rezoning application less than a month later - on September 25, 2025 - after "numerous inquiries and concerns related to the appropriateness of this site" .
They did not withdraw because they found a better location. They withdrew because the public pushed back.
The public hearing scheduled for September 29, 2025, was cancelled.
Since then, the City has asked the public for suggestions on where to locate the shelter. They created an online form. They said they are "open to suggestions".
Meanwhile, task force meetings are held behind closed doors. Minutes are not released until after the next meeting.
We do not even know if they ever hired the consultant they were considering.
We cannot even view the minutes in one place, we have to seek out the council meetings agenda packets to try to find them.
Of the 13 items on the action plan, the task force has completed two. Both benefit businesses: a grant for downtown business owners and a streamlined event application form.
What have they accomplished for people sleeping in doorways?
Zero. Zip. Zilch.
Winter is coming.
The Mustard Seed
The Mustard Seed operates the current shelter. Sources have told the Owl that the City is not the holdup - the Mustard Seed is holding out for a deal to buy a hotel to create a Navigation Centre. That sounds wonderful but…
The Mustard Seed has not been a good neighbour.
When they ran the daytime shelter on Allowance Avenue, it caused chaos in the neighbourhood. The Owl asked CEO James Gardiner why they had no Good Neighbour Plan. Gardiner said, "Nobody asked for one."
Mayor Clark is correct that the province is responsible for shelters. She says the City does not have the authority to ask for a good neighbour plan, nor can they enforce any contract, that is the responsibility of the province. The city allocates land, but has little recourse when things go sideways.
Winter is coming
The Elephant in the Room
The Mustard Seed was founded by Pat Nixon. From 2006-2011 his son Jason Nixon was the executive director for the Mustard Seed. Jason Nixon, is a now senior Alberta cabinet minister who once held the portfolio that included shelters.
The province funds shelters and selects the service provider.
The city cannot switch providers even if it wanted to.
The Mustard Seed gets paid for every person who stays in a bed. Charity Intelligence rates them as only Fair when it comes to Demonstrated Impact.
There is little accountability because they are not a public entity - the Access to Information Act (ATIA) does not apply. The Owl asked for local data.
Here is what we asked:
How many people in Medicine Hat were served by the Mustard Seed's Winter Response Program this last winter?
How many people have been housed since the Mustard Seed took over shelter services?
How many of those people stayed housed?
How many current shelter residents came from a shelter in a different town or city?
How many people are currently banned from the shelter? How long is the average ban?
Has a new location been identified yet?
How long is the average stay at the emergency shelter?
This is basic operational data that any accountable organization should be able to provide. Their response was:
"Thank you for your email, unfortunately we don't share curated lists of stats. You can find our public stats and information here."
No accountability, just a link to a website with generic, feel-good numbers.
Meanwhile residents of Medicine Hat are on the hook for extra policing costs for the social disorder surrounding the shelter.
Winter is coming
A System That Sets People Up to Fail
People on the street carry everything they own. The shelter has lockers, but they are small and pets are not allowed. People choose to sleep rough rather than abandon their animals or leave their belongings behind.
The Peace Team gives encampments a deadline to move. (NB - the date on the linked article is wrong, as is the contact info.) If they don't, their belongings are confiscated. They are ticketed for "illegal camping."
Let's be clear: camping is recreation. These people are trying to survive.
We don't have enough housing that bridges the gap between the street and an apartment. For someone who has been sleeping outside, an apartment can be overwhelming. They need transitional housing - a single room with supports.
Jaime Rogers, director of the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society, once housed a man in a lovely two-bedroom apartment. Months later, he was back on the street because the apartment was too much for him. He wanted a single room and she found one. He stayed housed.
Winter is coming.
Where Is the Transitional Housing?
Shelters are supposed to be a last resort; they are meant for short term occupation pending housing. What is actually happening is that people are staying at the shelter for months at a time. You don't have to believe us, here is what the Mustard Seed says about a client named David.
David has now been staying in The Mustard Seed's shelter for the past five months. While he has been there, David has worked hard to earn his certificates through the Employment Program, he has accessed mental, physical, and spiritual support through the Health and Wellness Centre, and David is hopeful that he will find a place of his own with the help of Mustard Seed advocates.
That's great that David can access all those things but a home would be even better.
Medicine Hat lacks sufficient transitional housing.
The Village, Duncan BC March 2025 - Owl News
Last year I wrote about a place called The Village, in Duncan, B.C.
The article is called Problems Caused By The Unhoused? House Them!
Duncan brought in 33 moveable sleeping cabins with wraparound support as a Covid response and stayed in place after the pandemic.
It has been remarkably successful - so successful that other municipalities have replicated it.
Residents were handpicked and with 24/7 support and security on site allowed the residents to stabilize.
With a door they could lock, many were able to reduce their substance use, some even quit altogether.
Here is the part that matters for Medicine Hat:
When Duncan planned The Village, they had 600 objections.
Duncan residents shared the same concerns as Medicine Hat residents, concerns such as
There is no 'perfect site'
Worry about safety and not enough security
We should not house people without services
Question was posed around statistics and how success is measured
The more housing you provide, the more people will come - it will make it worse
The site is good because it's close to a busy intersection and doesn't leave much room for loitering
Not enough community engagement (one person indicated not having been notified and questioned radius of engagement)
The service is needed, but the location is wrong (too close to youth centre and businesses) Worry about crime and illegal activity
(Sound familiar?)
So they held real town halls - with transcripts published and questions answered. They did not hold closed-door meetings and spring a decision on the public. They engaged people like adults.
Here is the location they selected, one block from a major commercial centre, across the street from seniors housing.
The Agencies Are Losing Faith in the (Seemingly Super Secretive) Task Force
Jaime Rogers has stopped attending task force meetings. She says there is "no point." She is not in charge of emergency shelters, but she has told The Owl she will not let people freeze to death on her watch.
The Kookums
Volunteers like the Kookums, the Root Cellar, and the Medicine Hat Cares Society feed street people every day. They didn't form a task force. They just did it.
When city staff tried to shut them down over permits, they said, "Either help us or get out of our way."
The city blinked. They put a garbage bin in the park.
None of the Kookums are on the task force. Maybe that is because they are too busy actually helping people to sit through another meeting about planning to help people.
The Crime Data
The community's fear is not unfounded. Medicine Hat's Crime Severity Index jumped to 94.4 in 2025 - an 11.4% increase. The city has higher crime severity than Calgary and is well above the national average. Violent crime has decreased but non violent crime has increased.
What the city is doing is not working.
Mayor Clark spoke about the shelter on August 17 2026 - spoiler alert - most of it was
You will have to ask the province.
Winter is coming
The Province Is Watching
In December 2024, MLA Justin Wright publicly criticized the city's communication on the shelter file. In January 2026, a provincial spokesperson said they "continue to urge the city to identify and zone a location for a permanent shelter." The associate deputy minister is in weekly contact.
Wright stated the province has the means to step in, "but we do not want to do that."
Winter is coming
The Time for Talk Is Over
The task force has a deadline to provide a report by September 17, 2026, less than three weeks away.
The shelter search is still a "standing item."
The lockers were killed by "no consensus."
The downtown washroom strategy is "paused."
The task force is a failure producing little but talk. It is time to admit that and try something different.
Keeping potential shelter locations a secret is not going to help. At this point, there is not a location that anybody will find acceptable because the Mustard Seed has poisoned the well, nobody trusts them to do the right thing.
Jaime Rogers has run a winter response housing about 20 people in a 2 bedroom apartment. Nobody knew they were there because it was run properly. A well run shelter is unnoticeable.
It is time to stop meeting in secret, start engaging the public, and actually select a shelter site. It is a matter of survival for our most vulnerable.
Today is International Overdose Awareness Day
The event runs from 4 PM to 7 PM on the same block as City Hall.
People in active addiction will be there. Some may be under the influence.
In the years The Owl has covered this event, there has never been an issue. No disorder. No chaos.
Why? Maybe because they feel welcome. Because there is food. Because for a few hours, they belong somewhere.
Geraldine, one of the founding Kookums, puts it simply. Sometimes people show up rude. She sets boundaries. She does not ask them to bow down. She does not ask them to listen to a prayer. She just asks them not to be a jerk - and they rise to that expectation every single time.
That is what happens when you treat people like human beings. They act like human beings.
Mayor Clark typically shows up for a portion of the memorial, as do some council members. The task force has over twenty members. Most of the service providers show up every time, it will be interesting to see how many of the politicians show up - and how many actually talk to the very people they are making plans for. They need to get their shit together because
WINTER IS COMING
Coming up next, more on the Mustard Seed.
