Resources to help homeless and addicted people with mental issues are “overwhelmed” in Red Deer, city council heard at a public hearing on Monday.
“It’s very hard to see somebody discharged from a mental health unit at the hospital when they aren’t any better than when they came in,” said Kathy Schepp, chair of the Safe Harbour Society board of directors. But she added, it’s understandable since the bed is needed for someone else.
Thirty-two people were slated to speak at a city hall hearing to decide extending the Safe Harbour temporary shelter operations in the downtown for a year, five years or until the permanent shelter is built.
Many speakers, especially from the downtown business community, were not in favour of any temporary shelter extension in the downtown, citing crime, vandalism, vagrancy and overdoses. Some emotional Red Deerians expressed concerns about a dying downtown, the loss of numerous core-area businesses and customers.
“I hope council has seen our faces and the anguish we are suffering,” said Tracy Chabot, who owns property close to the shelter.
She described constant fires being lit in a nearby alley, and people “cooking” drugs there. Chabot and others spoke about seeing shelter clients taking apart stolen bikes, breaking windows, cutting fences, breaking into businesses and stealing and defecating in alleyways.
But council also heard from social service agencies about how Safe Harbour is doing what it can to help what’s become a very dire situation of homelessness, mental illness and addiction — not just in Red Deer, but right across the country.
Central Alberta Outreach executive-director Ian Wheeliker feels it doesn’t matter if city council relocates the shelter anywhere in the city — or even closes it, for that matter — these social problems are not going away and troubled homeless people will be finding their way downtown and causing public disturbances.
City council heard that local health care facilities and non-profit agencies are “drowning” under the weight of so many people with complex social problems.
What Red Deer desperately needs is more temporary supportive housing, said Kath Hoffman, executive-director of Safe Harbour, who spoke of a homeless and addicted population that has quadrupled since the shelter opened, with close to 200 people spending some nights there.
Noting that Safe Harbour and other agencies are understaffed to deal with the extent of the problem, Hoffman noted that 436 overdoses happened at the shelter so far this year, compared to 168 last year. And many overdoses are spilling out into the community.
Superstore managers told city councillors eight recent overdoses happened in their parking lot and washrooms. Manager Rose Davies believes the situation has gotten worse in the last six months, after Alberta Health Services took over operations of the Overdose Prevention Site.
Davies also recounted having to deal with repeat incidents of social disorder and shoplifting — some 500 incidents so far this year. One involved someone attempting to heist $3,300 of goods in a shopping cart.
Staff and customers are afraid to come downtown — especially at night, said downtown business owner Gea Phagoo, who recalled opening her retail business for a week or two of night shopping before Christmas. “Now maybe we would do it for one night,” she added.
Hoffman stressed that she sympathizes and “totally” understands the frustration the business community is feeling. She acknowledged that her staff have a difficult job and are not immune to the complexities of working with this population.
Even Safe Harbour had to pay $30,000 to repair a vandalized fence around its own property.
But if city council only extends the temporary shelter’s operations for a year “where are you going to put us in a year?” Hoffman asked. “We have nowhere to go.”
If council pulls the plug on the shelter, city council was told by administration that, under the Canadian Human Rights Act, it has to provide a space for homeless encampments.
Mayor Ken Johnston decided to continue the meeting on Dec. 11 since only 13 speakers out of the 32 were heard by 9:15 p.m.
