Green space around the Drop-In Centre has been fenced off and ripped up for construction to make way for East Village redevelopment. 'Short-term pain for long-term gain,' says Chris Ollenberger of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation
People who live and work at Calgary’s largest homeless shelter believe city hall is putting the squeeze on their facility and creating a ghetto in East Village by restricting residents’ movement.
“There’s no question that they would like us out of here,” says Dermot Baldwin, executive director of the Drop-In & Rehab Centre. “They’re blocking us in… hoping that we will leave." The shelter’s lease of the city-owned land doesn’t expire until 2025, and Baldwin says he plans to stay put.
Drop-In residents are also feeling the squeeze, saying police harass and excessively ticket them for loitering when they leave the property. “They want to make it so you can be inside this compound, and that’s it,” says shelter resident and bottle picker Mike Nault, sitting on the curb in the shelter’s parking lot. “If you go out, you’re an open target.” More than 1,200 people stay at the centre.
Most of the parks and green space surrounding the centre have been fenced off and ripped up as part of the construction for the East Village revitalization, and the city recently closed both roads adjacent to the shelter (Fourth Ave. and Fourth St. S.E.) to install a new intersection, leaving limited access to the shelter. Even before construction began in the area, police routinely kicked homeless people out of nearby parks.
“It’s horrendously frustrating,” says Baldwin, adding that volunteering and donations have dwindled because of the shelter’s inaccessibility. “The ghettoization of it is fairly clear.”
However, the city-owned corporation that’s redeveloping the long neglected area says the temporary closures (the roads re-open mid-June) will ultimately benefit everybody, including the centre. “It’s a bit of short-term pain for long-term gain,” says Chris Ollenberger, CEO of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation. “They’re getting a whole new park system and a new pathway system and cyclist routes. So there’s going to be actually enhanced pedestrian access to the Drop-In Centre.”
Ollenberger says that by redeveloping the languished community and integrating the centre with other development, the city is doing the opposite of creating a ghetto. “There was no integration [before],” says Ollenberger. “Everybody just threw in a ton of social agencies and back-of-house operations that nobody wanted to see — and that is a ghetto. So if anything, we’re pulling East Village out of that ghettoization that they think they’re going into.”
Plans for a redeveloped East Village, approved by city council in 2005, portray a “humanly scaled” mixed-use community — mostly high-density residential — built around a central public square. Historic buildings, including the Simmons Building and the King Edward Hotel, are incorporated into the design.
Baldwin dismisses the East Village redesign as a “utopia” that will further isolate the shelter, but Mayor Dave Bronconnier says the area desperately needs an overhaul. "I understand one landowner doesn't like that. Well, I'm sorry we can't make everybody happy, but we're here to work for the majority."
Staff and residents at the Drop-In Centre say police treat homeless people differently than other Calgarians, giving an increasing number of tickets for infractions: loitering, public urination and public defecation. “We’ve had many people, up until recently, who could not cross over into Bridgeland without being bag-searched by police and told to get back onto your side of the Drop-In Centre,” says Debbie Newman, assistant executive director at the shelter.
Calgary police are beefing up their presence in the downtown core, bringing in 62 new beat cops to deal with crime and “social disorder.” Asked about bag searches and conflicts between police and homeless people, police chief Rick Hanson admits the force could do a better job of training its officers to deal with the homeless. "We have to strive to develop a far better relationship with the homeless agencies," he says. "It's about communication."
The frosty relationship between the Drop-In Centre and the city seems unlikely to warm up anytime soon. The city is in the process of buying the East Village Billingsgate building where the Drop-In Centre leases warehouse space, and plans to eventually knock the building down. Baldwin says the centre tried to buy the next-door Cecil Hotel, but was outbid by the city last year.
“They created a corporation that’s buying up every piece of property,” says Baldwin. “It’s as though this company owns the east side of the city, and we have no rights.”
Comments: 6
twyze wrote:
They should be giving even more tickets for public urination and defecation. I live in the East village, and I have a dog. Every time I take my dog for a walk, I have to keep him on leash, and keep a very close eye on him, so he doesn't sneak away from me, and eat some homeless person's shit. Not to mention the needles, and broken bottles strewn about in the alleys and field by fort Calgary.
on May 28th, 2009 at 10:09am Report Abuse
JValentina wrote:
just a thought.
on May 29th, 2009 at 11:30am Report Abuse
redfairy wrote:
on May 29th, 2009 at 11:45am Report Abuse
dejaview wrote:
My partner and I have lived in one of the recent condo developments in East Village for the past five years, so we have more than a bit of insight into the situation here. Like many of our neighbors, we have no problems co-existing with two homeless shelters in our neighborhood. I would even say it was a sense of social responsibility that attracted us to live this area.
What we AREN’T willing to tolerate, however, is a nonstop parade of drug dealers and crack-addicted prostitutes that shuffle through the area, parking themselves on the doorsteps of the shelters to solicit business, entice more users into the cycle of addiction, and raise general havoc throughout the city, using East Village as their base. The rundown, once-decrepit appearance of the neighborhood – which Dermot Baldwin has fought so hard to preserve through his opposition to any kind of improvements to the area – has served as a magnet for these kinds of predators.
It’s hard to imagine what sort of “green space” he is missing so dearly. Prior to the excavations currently being conducted around the Drop In Centre, the only “park” in the area was a dusty, needle strewn, garbage ridden strip by the river, where knife fights broke out, and once a week an evangelist with a bullhorn came to spew his raving, homophobic sermons at a volume that could be heard in Bridgeland.
If Dermot Baldwin actually came to the table to discuss proactive, sensible development of East Village, he might make allies with future businesses and institutions that could provide jobs and training for residents of his shelter. He accuses others of bypassing rules and processes, when he himself has been caught red handed in the past, trying to redevelop the old Billingsgate property into a temporary, fly-by-night shelter without seeking proper city permits and authorizations.
I don’t doubt that in his heart, Dermot Baldwin cares deeply about the homeless people who inhabit his shelter. But it’s time for him to pull his head out of the sand and think about the role of the Drop In Centre within the larger context of a changing Calgary, rather than fighting to maintain a regressive status quo.
on May 31st, 2009 at 10:29pm Report Abuse
twyze wrote:
JValentina: That's a great idea. There used to be a few porta potties around the East Village, but they're all gone now. Unfortunately, the porta potties were mostly used by homeless people and prostitutes to smoke crack/meth and have sex, so even if they install some public washrooms, they'll probably be made unusable in short time.
on Jun 1st, 2009 at 10:09am Report Abuse
HonestB wrote:
Yes, public washrooms in that area are likely to have people do drugs in them. Does that mean people shouldn't have a place to use the bathroom? I'm sure the city could find room in its budget for some bathrooms and hire people to keep them clean - after all, it's a fraction of the cost of the new police officers we've been getting.
on Jun 22nd, 2009 at 12:52pm Report Abuse
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