News   Apr 03, 2020
 6.3K     1 
News   Apr 02, 2020
 7.8K     3 
News   Apr 02, 2020
 4.6K     0 

Urban Development and Proposals Discussion

The solutions are out there... in fact they have been successfully implemented in another oil and gas city from a conservative corner of the world. We could easily do this in Calgary if A: we had a provincial government that actually gave a shit about solving the problem, instead of paying lip service to it and instead making moves so that the issue is downloaded onto municipalities they want to make life difficult for and B: if we moved past the mentality common in most English-speaking countries that someone who is homeless and suffering from addiction or mental health has to somehow prove their worthiness by either getting sober or getting on meds before we give them help with finding a home. We have a problem in North America where the homeless, renters and the working poor are viewed as somehow morally inferior to those who own homes and so therefore must continually prove their worth to society (see most NIMBYism).

What happened? In 2012, the city went all-in on a concept called "Housing First." Since then, homelessness is down 63% in the greater Houston area, and more than 30,000 people have been housed.

Housing First means spend money on getting the unhoused into their own apartments, subsidize their rent, then provide the services needed to stabilize their lives – not fix the person first; not just add more shelter beds.

"Our natural instinct when we see homelessness increasing is to hire more outreach workers and to build more shelter beds," said Mandy Chapman Semple, the architect of Houston's success story. She now advises other cities on how to replicate it, among them Dallas, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City. "The idea that if you have no permanent place to live, that you're also going to be able to transform and tackle complex mental health issues, addiction issues, complex financial issues? It's just unrealistic."


2012 may seem recent but the drug market has changed so significantly. It's also why the Portugal examples people love to cite (including myself in the past), no longer work in today's context. This worked at a time when people were addicted to at worst, heroin, and many, even softer drugs. Now, people take so much fentanyl, there's permanent damage that's unlikely to reverse with any treatment. A homelessness problem is solvable, a drug crisis that is tens or hundreds times more severe than in the past, I don't think any city has successfully solved.
 
It's also why the Portugal examples people love to cite (including myself in the past), no longer work in today's context.

Portugal's decline is more nuanced than that. It isn't just a surge of worse drugs but also a general de-funding and placing responsibilities onto nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations which simply do not have the funds, capacity, or scale to make a long-term positive impact; leading to the worsening of the situation.

From the WAPO two years ago (archive.is link due to paywall):
After years of economic crisis, Portugal decentralized its drug oversight operation in 2012. A funding drop from 76 million euros ($82.7 million) to 16 million euros ($17.4 million) forced Portugal’s main institution to outsource work previously done by the state to nonprofit groups, including the street teams that engage with people who use drugs. The country is now moving to create a new institute aimed at reinvigorating its drug prevention programs.

I understand that Portugal got stereotyped to "just decriminalized drugs and solved addiction" over the course of it's decriminalization experiment, leading to disasters like the recent Oregon decriminalization disaster, but historically Portugal had a very well funded and well oiled government service that was able to support and force drug rehabilitation for its citizens. However, when funding dried up, so did the positive results.

The lesson from Portugal is that anti-drug addiction measures need to be well funded and well supported by their respective governments and if they are not, they simply will not work. Regardless, nearly any anti-homeless initiative needs government funding regardless of its model. For example, since 1984, Finland had decreasing number of homeless people in the country in large part thanks to its model of "Housing First"; making sure that homeless people had a safe and steady place to sleep before anything else. However, Finland has experienced it's first rise in homelessness in eighteen years this year. The reason why, of course, being rising rents due to a decrease in housing construction and availability along with the current right wing Finnish government slashing welfare and funding for Finland's anti-homelessness initiatives.
“The current government has pursued an exceptionally aggressive policy of cutting welfare and unemployment benefits, housing support for low-income families, and exemptions for part-time work,” said Hukka. “Their aim has been to drive down budget deficits, and they have done so without the customary parliamentary evaluations—which usually involve taking into account the cumulative effects of policy changes. Added to this is the downturn in the national economy and the reduction of state-supported affordable housing.


“It’s not a real surprise—a rise in homelessness is what happens when you cut housing benefits, tell low-income families to find cheaper housing, and offer no feasible supply of affordable rental properties. A huge shame, really, and totally preventable. Finland’s national debt is not out of control. Biting the bullet and accepting that investing in social housing and welfare benefits during a downturn – even if it requires increasing budget deficits – is, in my opinion, a reasonable alternative. Welfare reforms can wait for an economic upturn.
The point of it all is that any and all anti-poverty, anti-homelessness, and anti-addiction projects need good and consistent long-term funding else they simply fall apart. Hell, even actively criminalizing, punishing, prosecuting, and forcing rehab requires funding. Without funding of any kind of any program to deal with the homeless and drug addicts requires funding that these programs simply don't get, and without that funding the problem only grows. Even something like moving or just demolishing DIC and other central supportive housing requires funding they're not receiving. So unless governments pony up, and I have a feeling most right wing conservative governments won't these days, the issue will simply only worsen.

Best you can do is simply continue to focus on housing affordability/supply so people have less chances to slip through the cracks and into chronic homelessness.
 
Portugal's decline is more nuanced than that. It isn't just a surge of worse drugs but also a general de-funding and placing responsibilities onto nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations which simply do not have the funds, capacity, or scale to make a long-term positive impact; leading to the worsening of the situation.

From the WAPO two years ago (archive.is link due to paywall):


I understand that Portugal got stereotyped to "just decriminalized drugs and solved addiction" over the course of it's decriminalization experiment, leading to disasters like the recent Oregon decriminalization disaster, but historically Portugal had a very well funded and well oiled government service that was able to support and force drug rehabilitation for its citizens. However, when funding dried up, so did the positive results.

The lesson from Portugal is that anti-drug addiction measures need to be well funded and well supported by their respective governments and if they are not, they simply will not work. Regardless, nearly any anti-homeless initiative needs government funding regardless of its model. For example, since 1984, Finland had decreasing number of homeless people in the country in large part thanks to its model of "Housing First"; making sure that homeless people had a safe and steady place to sleep before anything else. However, Finland has experienced it's first rise in homelessness in eighteen years this year. The reason why, of course, being rising rents due to a decrease in housing construction and availability along with the current right wing Finnish government slashing welfare and funding for Finland's anti-homelessness initiatives.

The point of it all is that any and all anti-poverty, anti-homelessness, and anti-addiction projects need good and consistent long-term funding else they simply fall apart. Hell, even actively criminalizing, punishing, prosecuting, and forcing rehab requires funding. Without funding of any kind of any program to deal with the homeless and drug addicts requires funding that these programs simply don't get, and without that funding the problem only grows. Even something like moving or just demolishing DIC and other central supportive housing requires funding they're not receiving. So unless governments pony up, and I have a feeling most right wing conservative governments won't these days, the issue will simply only worsen.

Best you can do is simply continue to focus on housing affordability/supply so people have less chances to slip through the cracks and into chronic homelessness.
There are cities in the US with extremely well funded programs on a per capita basis, whether they put the money to good use is another issue, but I don't think anywhere has successfully solved the current drug crisis severity. Fentanyl and other synthetic drugs haven't been as big of an issue in Europe and their still largely on the heroin supply.

 
I fully agree with Infrastructure Enthusiast’s ideas. I’m at the point where they need to be gathered up and forcibly sent to some type of set up outside of the city where they can detox, get mental support, learn new skills, and get set up for introduction back to society. The ones that can pass will be welcomed back with some affordable housing. The ones that refuse or are too far gone can wander around the corn fields in peace and leave everyone else alone. There are over 7 billion on this planet. Everyone can’t be saved.
That's a great idea!

In fact, before the 1980's there used to be such facilities. Unfortunately, our society can't enforce vagrancy laws or use force to gather people up and get them help as it would hurt people's feelings and infringe on their charter of rights. As a result, our society ends up treating homeless people like cows in India. And that's why we can't have nice things like glass on the Peace Bridge or enjoy an evening meal in EV.
 

Developer aiming to resurrect residential highrise project on vacant Eau Claire parking lots​

Eight condo towers restaurants, cafes and convenience retail proposed for two downtown parking lots

https://calgaryherald.com/news/deve...u-claire-surface-lot?itm_source=news&tbref=hp

The Calgary planning commission unanimously approved an area redevelopment plan amendment and a rezoning application Thursday for the project. A development permit has not been submitted. Their endorsement comes a decade after a similar “urban village” concept was considered for the site in 2014, only to be cancelled due to worsening economic conditions.

While the application does not mention suggested building heights or unit totals, the developer intends to build a “high-density, primarily residential development.” The amended Eau Claire ARP would increase the maximum amount of developable space than what is currently allowed.
 

Developer aiming to resurrect residential highrise project on vacant Eau Claire parking lots​

Eight condo towers restaurants, cafes and convenience retail proposed for two downtown parking lots

https://calgaryherald.com/news/deve...u-claire-surface-lot?itm_source=news&tbref=hp
1754609850323.png

looks like this is the vision they're going for
 
Vancouver has plenty of subsidised housing and it's not exactly working out of them.
Are you suggesting that Vancouver is somehow an easy place to find affordable housing? I accept that drugs are a big part of the problem, but housing is also part of the problem. There are plenty of people with addictions who live seemingly stable lives in a private home, but they're only one eviction away from ending up on the streets and becoming completely consumed by their addiction. The tighter the housing market, the more likely that eviction becomes. It's not a complete coincidence that the places with the most expensive housing also have the largest homeless populations.

Best you can do is simply continue to focus on housing affordability/supply so people have less chances to slip through the cracks and into chronic homelessness.
Exactly.

As a result, our society ends up treating homeless people like cows in India.
This is blatantly false. The issue is not that society's too full of bleeding heart liberals. The police are constantly harassing homeless people. The UCP doesn't seem to have any qualms about villainizing the homeless. And just look at what the Trump administration is doing to immigrants. We're clearly not a bleeding heart society. The issue is that homelessness is a tough problem that requires expensive solutions and conservatives don't like spending money. If one of you can convince the UCP to build some big complex on the outskirts of town to house and feed people with addictions, I'd be all for it.
 
Was hoping for something a little more spectacular to be built on these lots - guess we’ll see where this goes.
To be fair this just indicates the building plan based on the land use they applied for. Assuming their Land Use application is successful, Development Permits (DPs) will need to be applied for. Without seeing those DPs, all we know is the heights being applied for, and. Considering the closeness to the river I'm fine with what is proposed. We know the buildings will not be tall by calgary standards, but that doesn't mean they can't look awesome if the developer and architect want them tk be🙂
 

Back
Top