‘Start expecting a war’: Enraged Medicine Hat residents share frustrations over Mustard Seed locations

Emotions already at a boiling point spilled over in a town hall at the Medicine Hat Public Library that saw Hatters, often with visible anger, raise long-held concerns with Mustard Seed CEO James Gardiner, who was joined on stage by Kerri Sandford of the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society.

It was revealed in December that a joint effort involving the city, province and the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society is underway to find a new, centralized location for The Mustard Seed that would house its shelter, kitchen and other services.

Meanwhile, the non-profit has at the request of Alberta applied to receive approval to rezone its Allowance Avenue property to add 20 temporary shelter beds to address an urgent need amid the cold winter months.

At the hour-and-a-half long forum, those who filled the 152-seat library theatre heard about the experiences of many people who live in the Flats neighbourhood where the concerns have been raised.

Deardre Cannon was at work on a summer day last year when her 14-year-old daughter called her to say an individual was overdosing on their front lawn.

Cannon, a single mother, rushed to her home, located near The Mustard Seed’s Eighth Street shelter, to find police escorting the woman away.

“I’m like ‘this is too much’,” Cannon told CHAT News.

She and her daughter had moved to Eighth Street in an effort to get away from the Allowance Avenue location.

When they made the move in 2022, the Salvation Army’s mens shelter was set to shut down. However, the Alberta government asked The Mustard Seed to continue running a shelter there that is still operating today.

When the Calgary-based non-profit took over, it had a negative impact on the area, residents said.

“The amount of drug usage in our neighborhood is insane,” Cannon said.

Deardre Cannon says her teenage daughter found a woman overdosed on their front lawn. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

“I don’t even let my daughter take the bus to school because she has to walk down the alley in front of my house and, the last time that she did that coming home, she called me to say, ‘mom, there’s some people using drugs in the alley and I don’t want to go down there.’”

Cannon has felt increasingly unsafe for herself and her daughter. She’s installed 14 cameras on her home and trained her three dogs to protect them.

She asked Gardiner during the town hall, sometimes raising her voice, what his organization plans to do.

“The solution is to find a new location (and) move out,” the chief executive said in response, a process he pointed out was already underway.

Gardiner added his organization doesn’t have the power to arrest people and pointed out the Medicine Hat Police Service has assigned more patrols for the areas near the shelters.

But for Cannon, it’s too little and too late.

Cannon has decided to move away from Medicine Hat largely because of the experience she’s had. She’s found a job that takes her family to Calgary and will move in the spring after spending 14 years in Medicine Hat.

“I’m done with Medicine Hat,” she told CHAT News, adding that increased rental prices means she can get a place in Calgary for about the same rate.

It’s not just homeowners who are having problems.

Clay Stevens, who owns a convenience store metres away from The Seed’s Allowance Avenue site, said he’s lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in business in the last year alone.

“The Mustard Seed has done nothing but destroy our community,” Stevens said, sometimes raising his voice to the point of yelling as he addressed Gardiner.

He criticized the rezoning application coming before council.

“Even considering this application is a vile, disgusting thing. You’re looking at every member of (those who) live in the flats, and you’re spitting in our faces,” said Stevens, who owns Starlite Convenience.

“So, when I go bankrupt because of you, who’s going to reimburse me? Who’s going to put my kids through college?”

The Flats has evolved from “one of the best” areas of the city into a “disgusting area” filled with drugs and vandalism, Stevens said.

He acknowleged the work underway to move The Mustard Seed but said the non-profit needs to do more.

“I know the police are stretched to the max dealing with the blight that you guys bring to our area, but you guys got to start working a lot closer with the police, because it is disgusting in front of your building every day,” Stevens said.

“You better start expecting a war from this neighbourhood coming your way to straighten up the mess you created until you can get the hell out.”

Cannon and Stevens were only two of over a dozen residents who shared their experiences and criticized The Mustard Seed at the forum.

Jennifer, a woman who only identified herself only by first name, said she’s had a tire on her vehicle stabbed, a chop-saw taken out of her garage and items stolen from her yard.

“I’ve had stuff taken out of the back of my car while I was bringing in groceries,” she said at the microphone.

“I can’t carry it all at once. Do I have to lock up my house and car every time?”

Others said they have been woken up in the middle of the night by Mustard Seed guests creating disturbances.

Wednesday’s forum could act as a preview of a hearing taking place Jan. 15 when members of the public can speak to the rezoning request from The Mustard Seed to add 20 overnight beds to its Allowance Avenue location.

MLA Justin Wright, who is taking a leading role in finding The Mustard Seed’s new shelter location, a representative of Premier Danielle Smith’s office, Coun. Ramona Robins, Mayor Linnsie Clark and some city staff were also at the town hall.

All were listening intently — Wright was taking notes — but the only official to speak was Clark.

Mayor Linnsie Clark says she heard the concerns raised at the town hall and acknowledged a need to ‘hustle’. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

The mayor said she was struck by hearing that some residents regularly pick up needles left throughout their neighbourhood, saying she understood the problem needs to be dealt with urgently.

“We do need to hustle on a new location, that’s clear,” Clark said before she was interrupted by applause.

But she acknowledged residents are looking for immediate solutions and floated the possibility of a clean-up crew trained to handle drug refuse.

“We need to have some way of managing those hazards within the community while we’re searching for another location,” she said.

“Regardless of what the bylaw says, we need to find the right location and make it work.”

by Eli J. Ridder

‘Start expecting a war’: Enraged Medicine Hat residents share frustrations over Mustard Seed locations

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