As Boyle Street Community Services (BSCS) prepares to leave its current home, it’s spreading its services across four different locations in central Edmonton as it waits for work to finish on a new facility.
Boyle Street has occupied the centre since 1996 and helps vulnerable residents and those experiencing homelessness.
BSCS announced on Sept. 13 that it would close its main building at 101 Street and 105 Avenue at the end of September because its lease with the Oilers Entertainment Group had expired.
Construction on the King Thunderbird Centre at 107A Avenue and 101 Street is not expected to be completed until fall 2024.
On Monday, BSCS announced it had secured new locations:
- Boyle Street triage programs and services, which include intake, reception, housing intake, youth services, immediate needs, and mail and identification, will operate out of Bissell East at 10527 96 St. NW.
- Four Directions Financial and Hiregood will be moved to portable trailers at the new King Thunderbird site.
- Two Community Spaces and Cultural Service/IRS programs, which provides recreational and cultural activities for 30 to 40 people moving toward stability, will move to the Mercer building at 10363 104 St.
- A community space will be provided at Co-lab at 9641 102A Ave. for up to 20 people a day as a partnership between BSCS and Quarters Arts.
- BSCS administrative offices will operate out of space provided by Qualico.
- Streetworks will operate in an outreach capacity.
BSCS spokesperson Elliott Tanti says the main priority is making its clients aware of the change of location for services ahead of the building closure on September 30.
Staff will be at the old location on Oct. 1 to make sure people know about the new locations, and Boyle Street is dispatching teams across the city’s core to provide updates and answer questions.
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