The NWT government expects the Salvation Army’s Yellowknife overnight shelter to reopen on Thursday after flood damage this past weekend.
A burst pipe forced the organization to close the doors of an emergency shelter that can ordinarily accommodate up to 40 people a night under Covid-19 public health restrictions.
Yellowknife’s Mine Rescue Building, already serving as an emergency day shelter, was pressed into service as an overnight shelter for two nights, but a spokesperson for the NWT Housing Corporation said unspecified “operational considerations” meant the building could not be used as a shelter on Tuesday night.
Instead, the gymnasium of the city’s École St Patrick School became a makeshift overnight shelter on Tuesday.
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By email, Yellowknife Catholic Schools superintendent Simone Gessler said the arrangement was for one night only and there was “no interruption to school services.”
Cots were spaced seven feet apart, blankets issued and an evening meal and water provided, the housing corporation said.
On Wednesday night, people displaced by the flood were back at the Mine Rescue Building.
The housing corporation said the Salvation Army “has indicated their facility will be back up and running for the night of February 11, 2021.”
Speaking to NNSL, the Salvation Army’s Jason Brinson said he hoped that would be the case but was not yet certain.
