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Calgary's Homeless

In my experience the same people who act very 'compassionate' regarding the homeless and drug addicts are the same people who refuse to ride the train or do downtown because they're afraid of getting harassed by those very same people.

I'm not really sure what the solution is, but I'm getting tired of people saying 'the right things'.

Honestly, I never thought I'd say it but I'm getting to a point where I think we actually need to be 'tougher on crime'. Whatever we've been doing the last decade hasn't been working, so maybe it's time for a course correct.
 
I don't have any ideas for solutions, as I'm not an expert in the field of substance abuse and homelessness, but I feel like it's time for different solutions. The current solutions don't seem to be working as the issues are much worse than they even 10 years ago. I don't know if moving the facilities out of downtown is the answer, but something does need to change as the problem isn't getting any better, and I can't help but wonder what things will be like 10 years from now.
I too was one who thought about moving into the core. The plan was to look into moving to a place like EV or Beltline, etc with my wife and youngest son once my two oldest children moved out, but I've since changed my mind. I still go to the superstore at EV to pick up groceries once in a while, but the last couple of times were less than desirable, and I feel for the folks who live in EV.
 
O-tac said:
In the past I never would have agreed but since having kids that’s changed. The last time I visited the central library (pre covid) in addition to some sketchiness near the bathrooms some of the furniture on the second level smelled like a dumpster. I’m not trying to be judgemental, it was so foul that I’d be surprised if it was even cleanable.

But while the DIC makes for an easy target my experiences with homeless / druggies etc. DT stretch all the way to Century Gardens and also the Devonian Gardens. Basically anywhere along the lrt lines sees some degree of sketchy people. Chinook station is getting bad. Also my brother in law was a manager of a store in Dalhousie that routinely had to get hazmat teams to come clean the bathroom when homless junkies would have knife fights in it.

So not sure what the solution is, but I understand the issues with the DIC and families nearby. I mean the encampment across the street during covid got busted and was filled with weapons and drugs and it even spilled into the Garden Hilton at the other end.
Click to expand...
Agree. Having kids for sure changes things, that’s why downtown residents are mostly young singles, young couples or empty nesters.
My son wanted to take the LRT as he had never been on it. We took the free fare zone from the library to Kerby station and back. In the short time we did that we witnessed a fight between a couple of homeless guys on the city hall platform, and on the train some homeless lady barfed 🤮 in the car we were on.
I’m thinking to myself, ‘could ever raise my kids in this kind of environment?’ The answer is no. We (my family) lives in the inner city and have to deal some unsavoury things now and then, but the downtown is a whole other level.
The city is spending millions on revitalizing it by improving sidewalks and converting offices, but hasn’t addressed arguably the biggest issue.
I know so many people who go downtown to Stephen Ave or Eau Claire and hang out for an hour or two and then leave. Nobody wants to spend more time around downtown, and would they?
 
JonnyCanuck said:
www.greatgulf.com

Highcliffe Riverfront

<p>Embrace your urban nature. Highcliffe Riverfront will include two artfully crafted modern Towers featuring a surplus of amentites situated at 4th Avenue SE and MaCleod Trail SE. Rising from the banks of the Bow River and situated on the cusp of the city's burgeoning East Village, Highcliffe...
www.greatgulf.com www.greatgulf.com

The project is still on their website. Does not look like there is any investor 'reach out' so I would say that their plan is still to market it to local condo buyers when the market outlook improves.
Click to expand...
It’s more likely they’re waiting for the real estate market to heat up to a point where they can sell the parcel. There’s very little chance it’ll ever get built as condos marketed locally.
 
O-tac said:
In the past I never would have agreed but since having kids that’s changed. The last time I visited the central library (pre covid) in addition to some sketchiness near the bathrooms some of the furniture on the second level smelled like a dumpster. I’m not trying to be judgemental, it was so foul that I’d be surprised if it was even cleanable.

But while the DIC makes for an easy target my experiences with homeless / druggies etc. DT stretch all the way to Century Gardens and also the Devonian Gardens. Basically anywhere along the lrt lines sees some degree of sketchy people. Chinook station is getting bad. Also my brother in law was a manager of a store in Dalhousie that routinely had to get hazmat teams to come clean the bathroom when homless junkies would have knife fights in it.

So not sure what the solution is, but I understand the issues with the DIC and families nearby. I mean the encampment across the street during covid got busted and was filled with weapons and drugs and it even spilled into the Garden Hilton at the other end.
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s more than just the drop in centre. The area around the drop in centre the worst location, but the problem is all over the core in different spots, and like you mention problem can even be in the burbs if near an LRT station.
If anyone can find an east way to get people off drugs they’ll have gotten over the biggest hurdle.
 
People keep mentioning the Beltline. I would just like to say that although the Beltline has some issues, it’s not the level of east village around the DIC. The Beltline has a couple of areas, alpha house, and Sheldon Chumir, which are sore spots, but for the most part, the rest of the Beltline is pretty good.
 
I don't think the answer is to move facilities out of downtown, but try to spread them across the city so we aren't concentrating them downtown. Also, controlled access to transit needs to happen, homeless just hop a ride on the train and hope not to get caught, and ignore the tickets if they do. If we can prevent people without a valid fare from even getting on the train, that should help the areas around the train stations.

Addiction is the core issue though, and how do we force people into treatment if they don't want it or can't do it themselves? This is a very complex issue that's not going away until we have better mental health and addiction treatment. The attitude of the UCP on this tells you all you need to know about the future of the problem.
 
Just build it said:
I agree, that moving the DIC and some other facilities out of the core to industrial area does feel like it is hiding people out of sight but I don’t have an issue with that.

There’s no law that says homeless people have to be treated in a downtown core.
We’ve had that line of thinking for decades not just here in Calgary but other North American cities and as a result, we have issues with crime in the downtown cores of all these cities, while at the same time, trying to promote people living in the core.
High towers will continue to get built in East Village, and other places like the beltline, etc. but those neighbourhoods could be so much better, and could develop and flourish far better if we adjusted are thinking.

I would ask this, give one good reason why the support and treatment of homeless people has to be in the core of a city. There’s no law anywhere that says you must only treat homeless people in the core of a city, it can be done anywhere, rehab facilities, for example aren’t always located in the core of the city, sometimes they’re out of the city altogether.
Click to expand...

Because the homeless people are in the core of the city. Other public services and charities are in the core of the city. Foot traffic and public spaces and public transit are in the core of the city. We can put a homeless shelter in an inaccessible industrial area, where it will sit underused, (and we can freak out about the spike in homeless people on the transit system going there) or we can put it where the need is. Having homelessness and social disorder in downtown and someplace else just increases the resources needed to treat it.

We can house people in any part of the city, and should do so. The actual way to make the problem of homeless people go away is to solve the problem. It's not about being tough on crime -- you think being homeless is easy? -- it's being tough on the causes of crime.

It's frustrating that the city government is the primary one that is meant to deal with societal problems caused by physical and mental health problems and income inequality, when it's the only level of government with no responsibility or funding for any kind of health care, and with no income tax ability.
 
MM and BBB put it perfectly.

I would be on board with controlled access to the CTrain in order to increase safety, or at least perceptions of safety. The only major drawback would be we would have to ditch the Downtown Free Fare Zone, which is a pretty cool amenity to have, speaking as someone who lives in the core. It would also require major changes to the downtown stations (gates at each end of the blocks and at least one set mid-block, glass walls at least 9 feet high sectioning off the sidewalk passthroughs and the station areas). And even then, the troublemakers could still easily just cross the road and onto the platforms. Same with most stations on the Blue Line and a good number on the Red. Our system just isn’t really built for controlled access. It will be easier on the Eau Claire - Highfield section of the Green Line of course, and if we buried the Red Line through downtown it would eliminate a good number of interlopers.
 
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Beltline_B said:
People keep mentioning the Beltline. I would just like to say that although the Beltline has some issues, it’s not the level of east village around the DIC. The Beltline has a couple of areas, alpha house, and Sheldon Chumir, which are sore spots, but for the most part, the rest of the Beltline is pretty good.
Click to expand...
Agree. Outside of the places you mentioned, there isn't a huge issue with homeless people in the Beltline. You see them around, but most of those types are the bottle pickers. They're harmless. I'd argue there's more of an issue with idiots drinking too much and getting into fights or idiots unfamiliar with the concept of mufflers.
 
Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF) point-in-time (PiT) tabulation of homeless individuals in Calgary:

- Sept. 27, 2022 = 2,782 (71% are sheltered; 30.1% Indigenous, majority aged 25 to 65 [wide (40 yr) age range seems meaningless])
- 2018 = 2,911
- 2016 = 3,222

calgary.ctvnews.ca

Calgary's homeless population drops, according to new count

A new count of Calgary's homeless population indicates a drop in the number of people living on the streets – the lowest it's been since 2016.
calgary.ctvnews.ca calgary.ctvnews.ca

Point in Time Count - Calgary Homeless Foundation

The Point-in-Time Count is a survey that counts the number of people experiencing homelessness on a particular night.
www.calgaryhomeless.com www.calgaryhomeless.com
 
Interesting numbers, and good to see it going down. I hope there's more in depth info on why the numbers have gone down. Could it actually be a bad sign in that there are more deaths due to overdoses? Anyhow, for now it's positive news to see the numbers going down.
 
I’m also curious about the numbers, and I’m wondering if there are actually less homeless people out there. Trying to do a census on homeless people is difficult, because nobody knows where they are at all times.
They mention doing a ‘point in time count’ but you have to question how accurate that is, especially if they habits of the homeless change.
From a visibility standpoint, it seems like the homeless issue is worse, but that could also be related to how things changed due to Covid.
Homeless people were always somewhat of an issue when it came to things like the LRT but when Covid hit, it became far worse. We might just be seeing the hangover affect from that.
With homeless people using the LRT more maybe they are spread out more, making it more difficult to count.
 
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