An east Calgary supportive housing project cleared the planning commission, but area councillors said the bigger problem is how many such facilities their wards already host.

Members of Calgary’s Planning Commission (CPC) approved recommendations on Sept. 24 that will go to Calgary city council’s public hearing meeteing, allowing for the land-use redesignation of a parcel of city-owned light industrial land in Meridian (2612 – 3 Avenue SE), enabling a 60-unit, high-complexity supportive housing facility.

The CPC also approved a recommendation that city council endorse the sale of the land to the provider for $1.32 million.

Both items were approved 5-2, with Commissioners Shawn Small and Jacob Weber voting against.

According to a public submission from Home Space Society and GGA Architecture, the one-acre site would be transformed into a 60-unit “homestyle” facility that would provide 24/7 wraparound care and specialized support for residents with complex health and housing needs.

“This model of supportive housing helps remove barriers to social inclusion and fosters community through one-on-one interactions and peer support,” the Home Space submission read.

“It also supports residents in building independence and preparing for a future ‘step-down’ in care.”

The City of Calgary noted in the package that feedback from the public included concerns around safety, security and social disorder. There were also general concerns about addiction treatment services in the area, negative impacts on area businesses, traffic concerns and a lack of access to amenities.

Small said that he was fine with the specific use at this location but had issues with the removal of park space (municipal reserve) in the area.

“I can’t get behind disposing of the reserve because, I think, from a longer-term city planning perspective, that’s a mistake to dispose of that reserve without exchanging it for an equal amount of space in this location somewhere at this point in time,” he said.

Lack of communication, saturation a bigger issue in east Calgary, says advocate

Larry Leach, executive director at 12 Community Safety Initiative (12CSI), said developers for projects like this tend to treat community engagement as a checked box, rather than developing a relationship with the area residents and businesses.

“It’s something that leads to great angst and great failure when it comes to actually putting the projects in place,” he said.

He cited a location in Abbeydale called the Fresh Start Recovery Centre that did exceptional outreach to the community, did regular communication, and there were few problems. Fresh Start was an outlier, Leach said.

According to Leach, another provider had a facility move into the same location after Fresh Start left and did little connection with the community. There was an increase in social disorder and complaints from the community.

“When I reached out to the community associations, they hadn’t heard from these folks. There’s been no communication. There’s been no relationship developed,” Leach said.

The outreach report for the Home Space Society’s Meridian project showed that direct email notifications went out to 29 community associations, local non-profits and area councillor offices. They also offered one-on-one meetings, did door-to-door outreach to 30 homes, met with CPS, and updated the project website with information.

Leach advocated for stronger good neighbour agreements between residents and the operators of the recovery facilities.

“You get to know what they’re about, and then your community has a better ability to share with their neighbours, ‘this is what’s happening, this is what they’re about, and if you have any issues, here’s who you should call,’” he said.  

“From the get-go, these types of projects fail when they don’t do that first.”

Further, Leach said at their last count, there were 21 of these types of facilities in the 12 communities in 12CSI. That concentration is a problem.

“That’s a high concentration. You’re starting to tip a community now, as opposed to being part of a community,” Leach said.

City permit data shows that the 12CSI communities have a slightly higher per capita concentration of special care, assisted living, residential care, addiction treatment or custodial care permits (2.4 per 10,000 residents).  Though, according to the data, Forest Lawn and Albert Park / Radisson Heights bear the brunt of it, with 12 of 21 sites, or a ratio of about eight sites per 10,000 residents.

The citywide ratio of these permitted units is 2.2 per 10,000 residents. However, the concentration is greatest in the Beltline, Bridgeland, downtown, Chinatown and West Downtown.

There are other clusters in Inglewood, Parkdale, Windsor Park and Manchester, according to city data.

Councillors want a ‘fair share’ approach

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said that there was interest from local landowners to put money towards refurbishing the park space but found out the city was looking at disposition of the site for the special care facility purpose.

“I’ve also heard from a number of different entities within what I would say is still part of the Greater Forest Lawn area that there seems to be a proliferation of these types of uses in the area, and I feel like the area may have become saturated with those social type services,” he said.

Chabot mentioned that he’s considering asking for work to be done on determining a reasonable amount of social services for a community to take on, without having significant unintended consequences.

Ward 9 Coun. Harrison Clark has already put some work into the issue, as he’s nailing down details on a future motion that would examine equitable distribution of social housing around Calgary’s communities.

He’d like to see a “fair share” framework used to guide the siting of such facilities, with the goal of reducing further concentration in any one area. Cities like New York have had a fair share criterion since 1991 (it guides everything from homeless shelters to waste stations), and Ottawa pushed for a 24-ward fair share model two years ago.

Clark says there are numerous different programs operating in Wards 9 and 10, many of which are no-barrier shelters.  He said they already have their fair share.

“This is a legacy issue. This is the way we’ve done it for many decades now, and it’s always landed in the same neighbourhoods. And as the new city councillor for Ward 9, I have my eyes squarely on delivering these neighbourhoods into this next step, this 2-million-person city, with the proper investment to allow them to be present themselves in a better way,” Clark told LWC.

“We are not going to carry Calgary’s story about these neighbourhoods anymore.”

He said when you dig beneath the surface layer of how others view these east Calgary communities, there’s a strong community spirit, incredible volunteerism, strong community voices and care for one another.

“It’s everything you’d want in a healthy community. What we have on top of it is the city of Calgary’s problems that we don’t know where else to put,” he said.

“So, let’s put them there because we always have. That’s bullshit.”