At Wednesday night’s City of Lacombe Municipal Planning Commission meeting, an application for a Winter Inn at the Lacombe Food Bank and Thrift Store was reviewed.

This type of inn would shelter anyone who needed a bed for the night during the coldest months of the year, specifically from the end of October to the end of April, with the building only being open to guests from 7pm until 7am.

The proposal was met with strong opposition by the neighbours along 53rd street who showed up to the meeting to find out more information about the proposal, and to have their voices heard.

Some of the biggest concerns dealt with safety and property values.

Neighbours worried about what the people who use the inn would do after the hours of 7am, and whether it should be placed in a neighbourhood so close to schools and day care centers.

Shannon Giesbrecht is one of those concerned neighbours who came to the meeting, and she likes the idea, just not the location.

"I feel that it's needed. I feel that it's not a good location. I've been in human services for 18 years, and I think they're not fully aware of the ramifications surrounding this. I'm the biggest bleeding heart going, but I think that the security issues have absolutely not been addressed and I would love to see it in the industrial park."

Millie Snow is the General Manager of the Lacombe Food Bank and the one who proposed this idea.

She has worked in soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and Winter Inns before, and her main drive behind this project is to ensure nobody is left out in the cold in Lacombe because they have no other place to go.

The idea of the Inn is strictly a place for someone to sleep during the cold winter nights, providing a bed and a blanket for up to 12 people.

However, arrangements would be made to accommodate additional people if the need arose. There are no plans to serve hot meals or provide showers at the inn.

In the end, the proposal was tabled until a later date, to give Snow the chance to connect with some organizations in town, such as Victim Services, the Lacombe Police Service, and Family and Community Support Services, which the Inn would greatly benefit from their partnership.

The committee, as well as their neighbours, felt that it is a nice gesture, and one that is certainly needed in Lacombe, but that Snow needs to do more research on how to handle the sometimes volatile situations that can occur when it comes to this vulnerable section of the population.

"They (the committee) suggested we get together with some of the support groups, and we suggested we get together again with the neighbours and go over it again to make sure that everybody is happy with it”, said Snow.

An example of some of the concerns the committee voiced included; what would happen if someone came to the Inn, but was too intoxicated to be allowed inside? What if someone came who was in crisis, fleeing from a domestic situation or in fear for their lives? Would the Inn have the proper resources to help with these situations? These are some of the questions Snow needs to have answered before the proposal can go forward.

Snow says they will not go forward with the proposal unless the neighbours are fully on board with it.

MPC tabled the application until late July or early August.

(The Thrift Store on 53rd street, the potential site for the Winter Inn)