Regina group home urges Weyburn council to choose openness

After backlash from residents and politicians alike, Weyburn city council is reconvening Monday night to reconsider building a group home for people with disabilities in one of the city’s newer areas.

Council initially voted down the build earlier this month, citing concerns over property values, parking and safety.

Debbie Yurkoski is keeping a close eye on the situation from the Queen City.

As the executive director of the Cheshire Homes of Regina Society, which runs four group homes in the city for people with intellectual and physical disabilities, Yurkoski knows all too well the challenges they often face when entering new communities. However, she emphasized most negative views can be shifted through education.

When Cheshire Homes’ house on Mallard Way was built on the edge of Mount Royal 17 years ago, Yurkoski said it was one of only a handful of homes on the block.

She said they began with an open house, inviting residents in the area inside the group home to meet its residents, air their concerns and ask questions.

The Cheshire Homes of Regina Society’s group home at 5907 Mallard Way, on the edge of the city’s Mount Royal neighbourhood, was built in 2002. (Jessie Anton/980 CJME)

“By having that open house and having those conversations and having (neighbours) — more than anything — meet the people who were going to live there, that sort of paved the road,” Yurkoski remembered. “What happened is they quickly realized they’re just like them.”

After that, she said relationships were built.

A few years later, Shannon Carton’s family moved in next door, and — like many others on the block — grew to consider the four men with intellectual and physical disabilities inside the group home as friends.

“They’re like any other neighbour; they come over to have a beer, have a coffee and just sit and visit. The guys normally take my dad out to Rider games and they go to the Exhibition,” Carton explained. “I don’t see the difference in them placed here or anywhere else.”

When it comes to people’s concerns, she said she doesn’t feel they’re valid.

“It’s no different than having a neighbour with Down syndrome or autism — it doesn’t affect your day-to-day life,” she said, stressing parking and safety in particular have never been issues.

As both Cheshire Homes’ board chair and someone who has a daughter with disabilities, Lynne Demeule said she hopes Weyburn city council reflects on how far society has come when they reconsider the decision, and the impact it could have, should they choose again to vote down plans to build the group home.

“People say things they don’t give much thought to and it’s important to revisit that,” she said. “Hopefully things will move forward and the group home in Weyburn will be as successful (in the new area) as they have been in all the others.”