| Richard White, executive director of the Calgary Downtown Association, says he’s hoping that Calgary’s Drop-In Centre, the city’s largest shelter, will be turned into a "funky" office, condo or hotel by 2016.
His vision for the future of downtown has angered Dermot Baldwin, the executive director of the shelter, who says without the shelter thousands of Calgarians would be left with nowhere to go.
"He just doesn’t like poor people. He doesn’t want the poor downtown," says Baldwin. "We know there’s enormous pressure from his group on the city to gentrify the downtown."
However, White says as a director of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, he’s read research that indicates that smaller, more specialized shelters are better able to help the homeless.
"Certainly all the information I’ve read is the need for boutique shelters that are for 100, 150 or 200 people is more appropriate than warehouse facilities where everyone gets thrown into the same space," he says.
White says he envisions several shelters "in and around downtown" that would be smaller and "fit into a community in a more appropriate way."
He suggests the Drop-In Centre "could probably make a profit" by selling its building and then it would be able to open up new locations.
"The reality is that as land becomes more valuable, it may make perfect sense for them to sell the building at a profit…. Every building should go through an evolution," says White.
Baldwin says his shelter will be more needed than ever because homelessness is continuing to rise as the city booms. He points out that many apartment buildings are being converted into condos, which is eliminating a lot of affordable housing.
He also takes issue with the term "warehouse." He says shelter clients receive "some of the finest treatment our people have ever had in their entire lives." He says in 2004 the shelter helped 6,500 people get off the street.
"God help us if we didn’t have it. The cost in terms of death and just other prices you pay would be atrocious," says Baldwin.
John Currie, chair of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, says he’s "not in agreement" with White’s vision. Currie agrees there is a lot of research that shows that smaller facilities can have advantages, but trying to find several locations downtown for smaller shelters to replace the Drop-In Centre "is almost out of the question" due to high prices for land.
Currie says the major issue preventing Calgary from truly addressing homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. He says there’s now a fair amount of transitional housing, but not enough permanent housing.
"When they’re through with their transition phase, there’s no place for them, so a lot of them end up discouraged and off track and they’re back down in the shelters again," he says.
Currie says the Drop-In Centre is needed and staff is doing " a very good job."
White says he knows his vision is "a bit out of mainstream thinking," but that he’s also hopeful that homelessness will be much less of a problem in 10 years so there will be less need for large shelters. |
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