The removal of a camp outside the Calgary Drop-In Center has sparked a broader conversation within City Hall and the disappointment of Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
Calgary law enforcement officers along with police began removing tents from the area along Dermot Baldwin Way and Riverfront Avenue SE on Tuesday, and efforts continued through Wednesday outside the Drop-off Center.
“It is something that has been considered a cleaning, which is not acceptable,” Gondek told reporters on Wednesday. “This is not how we characterize caring for people in vulnerable situations, when we demolish the only home they have.”
Homeless care advocates said the camp has grown significantly in recent weeks with the arrival of colder weather.
Read more:
Calgary’s vulnerable population struggles to survive in the cold
Under Calgary statutes, there has been a “shelter-in-place” strategy for homeless camps in the city since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning those tents would not be removed if there were no risk to public safety or vulnerable people indoors.
However, Calgary’s director of statutes Ryan Pleckaitis said the campground around the Drop-In Center had “significant safety risks” for those inside the tents and the public, prompting complaints from the business community. surrounding.
“There are so many camps that they sometimes invade and block access to the Drop-In Center, creating significant challenges for emergency medical services, firefighters and Calgary Police Service personnel,” Pleckaitis said.
“There is the use of propane heaters, candles (and) other open flame sources, which obviously create risks not only for the people who use those heat sources, but for everyone else in that area.”
Pleckaitis said the first priority for ordinance officers is trying to get those who sleep outside to shelters or “more suitable living arrangements” before removing the tents and any debris, litter or garbage in the area.
Read more:
Calgary’s Homeless Assistance Program Proposes Emergency Warming Centers
“A cleanup is fine if you are removing debris. It’s not okay if you’re eliminating people, ”Gondek said. “It is not something that we are going to defend in our city. We must be better than this. “
Chaz Smith is with Be The Change YYC, a homeless care advocacy group that provides emergency essentials to the city’s homeless community.
According to Smith, the group provides tents and sleeping bags, many of which were being used in the camp outside the shelter.
He told Global News that his team members were available Tuesday night when officers were demolishing the camp.
“What we saw further in the East Village were a lot of medical calls we made to ambulances, where then people were exposed to the elements for too long and sucked up whatever conditions they had,” Smith said.
In response to the removal of the tents, Gondek convened a meeting between city staff, statutes, fire and police, as well as social agencies, including the Drop-In Center and Alpha House.
According to a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, the purpose of the meeting was “to bring together key stakeholders to drive greater collaboration and coordination to better serve those who sleep on the streets and all the residents of Calgar.”
“The conversation involved addressing greater access to shelters, public restrooms, supervised drinking sites, disposal of needles, and access to more permanent wrap-around supports (housing, mental health and addictions),” the mayor’s statement said.
Read more:
The Center’s Walk-In Vaccination Clinic Aims To Help Calgary’s Most Vulnerable
Sandra Clarkson, Executive Director of the Calgary Drop-In Center, participated in the meeting and described the conversation as productive.
According to Clarkson, the Shelter Center outreach teams are tasked with determining who are the people sleeping outside the building, under what circumstances they are in, and why they have not accessed services within the shelter.
The Drop-In Center is described as a low-barrier shelter with no sobriety requirements, but Clarkson said there is zero tolerance for violence towards clients and staff or predatory drug solicitation.
Clarkson told Global News that the Drop-In Center will conduct a review of its policies to determine if there are barriers that have been developed for people to access the shelter.
“As a result of COVID, we have inadvertently put up barriers without realizing it,” Clarkson said. “So we are exploring our internal operations to see if there are barriers that we can remove to increase access to shelters.”
Pleckaitis confirmed that Calgary’s statutes would also review its internal practices to ensure that the response is effective and compassionate toward the city’s most vulnerable populations.
Ultimately, advocates for homeless care agree that the problem is complex and believe that access to housing is a major factor in the situation.
“Everyone wants housing, and while we continue to fight for homeless people to get housing, we simply don’t have enough housing for this population,” Smith said. “With a 30 percent vacancy rate in the city center, we could all agree that it is quite unacceptable for anyone who wants a home to have to sleep outside.”
The mayor’s office said Gondek hopes the meeting will be a first step in “better aligning services and response.”
© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Reference-globalnews.ca