Town hall on proposed $35M YWCA facility in Cathedral brings supporters, concerns

YWCA Regina co-hosted a town hall in Regina Tuesday night to answer questions about the new facility it is proposing to build in the Cathedral Neighbourhood.

The proposed $35 million Centre for Women and Families would be at the site of the former Victoria School and Lucy Eley Park. The City of Regina voted in January to gift the land — valued at around $2 million — to the YWCA.

YWCA Regina CEO Melissa Coomber-Bendtsen said the main concerns she heard were that people still wanted a community space. where people could play in a park. People were also concerned about how the building will fit into the neighbourhood. 

"It's those unknown pieces of not being totally sure how everything is going to work," she said. 

Coomber-Bendtsen said they are working to ensure that the design reflects what people want and how it will be used. As a result, the design has been changed multiple times based on people's suggestions.

Samantha Kelly attended the town hall because of how close she lives to the proposed YWCA site. She's concerned the location would put women at risk.

"I don't think it's the right place," she said. "As someone who was in an abusive relationship, I would never go to a women's shelter where I could see my abuser from the window in his house where he would legally allowed to be."

Kelly was also concerned about three years of construction taking place right by her home. She's also worried about parking in the area and the design of the building could be blinding for some residents.

As well, Kelly is concerned it could change the area, she said. 

"The fact that there will be a station where the homeless can kind of come in — it might become a very transient sort of area," Kelly said. "I have a daughter. I know there's 25 kids who live around that area and it's going to become an unsafe place for them to play."

However, not everyone was against the project.

"I think with a lot of these harm reduction initiatives there's a tendency to say 'Yeah, I support this in principle but not in my backyard,'" said Meara Conway. "If you support these initiatives, you have to be willing to open up your community to them."

Conway lives in Cathedral and said she's excited about the new project. She said she knows there's lots of people that have concerns, but thinks the project is being done transparently and that her concerns were addressed at the town hall.

Conway hopes people remember that the YWCA is located near the neighbourhood right now and there's other initiatives close by such as Street Culture that are successfully helping people.

Meanwhile, Coomer-Bendsen said the YWCA is busy doing traffic impact assessments, working on the land and fundraising. She hopes to break ground next fall. 

The YWCA maintained it doesn't have plans for a safe injection site on the property or a needle exchange.

It's believed the project will receive $10 million from the province and $12 million from the federal government. The rest of the money will come from fundraising.