Yellowknife Online

Something I thought I would address here on this site is bathrooms. Apparently, bathrooms or lack there of, are a problem for Yellowknife. It seems that the (homeless) people are using the streets as their very own lavatory and the news sources are doing everything in their power to make sure people know. I wouldn’t normally have a problem with this except they seem to have chosen not to do any investigative journalism.

If they had of done some simple research they would have found out there actually is a public bathroom available for the homeless and any other person who needs to use one. Most people know where these homeless people sleep at night, the Salvation Army. Well guess what, the Salvation Army also offers the use of their public bathrooms all day. Therefore there shouldn’t be anyone complaining about why there are no bathrooms in this town, what they should be asking is why the City, Radio Station and Newspaper seemed to over look this valuable bit of information.

Some would argue that the Salvation Army doesn’t advertise this, but the fact is they do. Let me explain this to you. I can almost guarantee most of these people who are using our streets as bathrooms also sleep at the Salvation Army and they are well aware that there are bathrooms for them to use. They are also told that there are showers available to them during the day as well. And, yes and! They also have the use of laundry facilities available to them.

Now that you know there are bathrooms for these (homeless) people to use, I would love to get your take on the Day Shelter that is planned for September. My concern, coming from working at a youth center and growing up around The Salvation Army, would be by building the Day Shelter we are just enabling these people. In my experience by providing a place that allows people to come and just hang out in a warm sheltered place does not give them any motivation to actually try and change. That being said, I don’t actually know what will be available at the shelter. However if The Salvation Army already is providing washrooms, showers, laundry facilities and yes even caseworkers during the better part of the day, is another day shelter necessary? Why not provide funding for The Salvation Army to expand their programs to better provide these services. Let me know what you think in the comment section below.