(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

clean ups paused during pandemic

City to address backlog of rough sleeper camps in June

Jun 1, 2020 | 1:30 PM

Despite two new temporary shelters in the city, municipal staff say the number of rough sleeper camps has not gone down.

Between Jan. 1 and May 25 of 2019, there were 101 camps tended to. There were 81 in the same span of 2020, however the City postponed clean up for six weeks at the start of its COVID-19 response.

Emergency Operations Centre Director Karen Mann says there’s a backlog to get through during the month of June.

“We have doubled crew numbers from the Parks department and increased the frequency of camp clean ups for the month of June in order to catch up,” she says. “We feel like we’re getting on top of it.”

The City has a lot of money invested in the removal of rough sleeper camps, $400,000 to be exact. Because the number of camps didn’t actually change much, none of that funding can be diverted elsewhere.

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Asked if the City still feels its method of dealing with the camps is effective, Social Planning Manager Tricia Hercina says that yes, it does believe that.

“The current processes we use around camp clean ups is really about public safety, so in terms of maintaining the safe usage of our parks and trails, absolutely it’s effective,” she says. “It will be an ongoing effort as long as we have camping in our community.”

Red Deer is one member of a seven-city collective of Alberta’s largest municipalities which collaborate on homelessness and housing initiatives.

Hercina says that includes learning from one another how to improve the clean up of rough sleeper camps. She says Red Deer works particularly well with Edmonton on this issue, with both having similar inner-city river systems

The number of camps in Calgary is up this year, she adds.

“We’re currently using the Community Housing and Homelessness Integrated Plan (CHHIP) to guide our efforts with respect to homelessness. There are many programs going on, with quite a number of different agencies doing service delivery,” Hercina shares.

“We are concerned about the impact of COVID-related decisions that have had to be made around employment and the stability of families in homes, so we are working on increasing prevention work in the city, which will hopefully assist in keeping people housed when the uncertainty starts to unravel.”

Prevention, she says, includes assistance for families who’ve fallen behind on bills, improving a family’s or individual’s financial literacy, and help with navigating repayment plans.

Bredin Institute, Red Deer Native Friendship Society, and McMan Central are some of the agencies working with the City on ramping up prevention efforts.