By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Riverside Meadows residents fed up with illegal park activities

Aug 27, 2018 | 1:50 PM

Frustration is growing in one of Red Deer’s most central neighbourhoods.

Riverside Meadows residents are fed up with the activities taking place in the neighbourhood’s public park near The Mustard Seed. Those activities, according to one woman, include defecation, fights, dealing and doing drugs, prostitution and camping.

Dawn Oliver has lived adjacent to the green space in question for close to four years, saying she did her research before buying her home, which she is now trying to sell at a much lower price.

She says several parties need to start taking responsibility for the issues plaguing the area.

“This isn’t what I signed up for — people doing drugs against my fence and crime on top of that,” she says.

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“The first thing that needs to happen is The Mustard Seed needs to move. They’re not being upfront or as forthcoming as they could be. They need to move to a location that’s still central so these people can still access the services.”

Furthermore, Oliver says the mayor, City of Red Deer, province and AHS need to stop ignoring what’s going on.

“They need to quit putting a band-aid on everything by hiring City crews to come out every Thursday and clean the camps. That’s their idea of helping. They put all their money into the Winter Games and making the city pretty, yet they don’t have a dime to put towards homelessness or developing addictions programs?”

Oliver insists it’s become so bad that another resident went out of their way to purchase and distribute sharps (needles) containers throughout the area.

She believes what Red Deer really needs is more housing and help with integrating people back into society in a healthy way, which she notes The Mustard Seed does more of in Edmonton and Calgary.

Oliver was one of about 60 people who attended a recent community meeting hosted by the Riverside Meadows Community Association.

Vice-president Chad Krahn says to put it simply, people are unhappy.

“Naturally people want to help others and see people who are struggling find a house and do well, but it’s to the point where this is constantly an issue like people screaming at 2 a.m. outside your property,” he says. “These people have refused help, and that really frustrates people. It’s a complicated thing without a clear solution.”

Also in attendance at the meeting were Safe Harbour, Turning Point, the RCMP, The City’s social planning department, The Mustard Seed, and city councillor Michael Dawe.

Krahn says they all listened well and expressed empathy to residents for what they’re being forced to deal with.

“RCMP explained that when you call and someone’s breaking into your truck, it goes into the queue, and domestic violence goes first, and then there are other things. They triage things and that’s not number one,” he says. “There are twelve (general duty) officers driving around town at any time and that’s just sort of the way it is.”

He feels Riverside Meadows has made strides and that a lot of the people he talks to actually enjoy living there despite the reputation it’s garnered as an epicentre for crime and other nefarious activity.

Mayor Tara Veer says The City is hearing residents loud and clear, but she believes the issues at hand are at a systemic level as opposed to being the fault of any one service provider.

“Red Deer’s long standing calls to address the shelter infrastructure capacity shortage remain unfunded by the provincial government,” she says. “Any time that there is polarity or division in a neighbourhood is deeply concerning for The City and we know we need to find a resolution.”

Last January, council approved $300,000 to clean up rough sleeper camps around the city – which number 50-70 at any one time. Veer defends that decision, saying despite the struggles with the camps in Riverside Meadows moving to other nearby locations, outreach workers who attend the encampments with City workers are having an impact.

“In the long term, we need our community’s support in advocating before the provincial government to ensure there is sufficient shelter both overnight and daytime because what we are currently seeing is the spillover effect downtown, in our parks and trails system and adjacent to residential properties,” Veer continues. “In the short term, if people see something, they must say something. There are complaint lines.”

Veer wouldn’t comment specifically on The Mustard Seed, but says frontline service providers are doing the best they can with the available resources.

She also offered insight into the ongoing talks around supervised consumption services in our city, saying that the working group is still looking at all options, including a permanent location. A new recommendation could come in the early fall, she says.

As for The Mustard Seed, they won’t be moving anytime soon.

“We would love to expand and do new things, but what exactly that looks like, we don’t know at this time. I wouldn’t say we have plans to move,” says Laura Unruh, Community Development Coordinator. “We’re trying to build community, grow hope and support change, and those are big ideals. We have some real concrete ways we hope to accomplish that and our doors are open to anyone at any time.”

Unruh says it’s sad and disappointing that there are people who want The Mustard Seed out of their backyard. She says their Edmonton and Calgary locations are able to do more because they’ve been around for three decades.

Any accusations that The Mustard Seed doesn’t care about its guests once they cross the property line or that they’re not being transparent are totally inaccurate, Unruh adds.

“We are committed to this community, and not only do we care about our guests, but we care about the community we live in. We’re always open to hearing peoples’ concerns,” she says. “I see us as being an integral part of this community.”