Yellowknife’s day shelter has reopened its doors at its usual site on 49 Street.
The shelter temporarily moved back to its previous location on 50 Street earlier this week amid extreme cold weather.
The NWT’s health authority said on Monday the shelter on 49 Street, near the Joint Task Force North building, was closed due to a lack of water at the facility.
In an update on Wednesday, the health authority said the day shelter had moved back to its 49 Street location and resumed usual operations. The authority thanked day shelter users “for their understanding,” as well as staff and contractors for adjusting operations and addressing issues at the facility.
The health authority previously told Cabin Radio the same 49 Street building had lost heat for about two hours on the morning of January 10, and staff had hired a contractor to assess and address any frozen pipes that day.
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The territorial government began operating the day shelter at the 49 Street location in December 2021. The facility, which consists of a series of modular buildings on a site which once housed the city’s visitor’s centre, is intended to be temporary until a new day shelter and sobering centre, dubbed a “wellness and recovery centre,” opens it doors.
While the territorial government initially planned for construction of the new facility on 51 Street to be complete in 2023, that timeline has been repeatedly pushed back. The facility is now expected to open before the summer of 2026.
In October, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Services told Cabin Radio the GNWT plans to request an extension of its site development permit until October 2027.
The department said that will ensure the conditions of the city permit are met, which include removing all structures and restoring landscaping if needed.
The current permit ends on February 28.
