By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Clean-up of Red Deer’s homeless camps evolving in 2019

Jan 18, 2019 | 5:24 PM

The City of Red Deer is looking to take a smoother approach to cleaning up rough sleeper camps in 2019.

During operating budget debate a year ago, city council approved $300,000 to be spent in 2018, the first time money was allotted for this specific task.

At the time, they also approved $200,000 for this year. In budget debate last week, council approved an additional $200,000 for camp clean-up, bringing the total budget for 2019 to $400,000, a 33 per cent increase.

City staff received 513 complaints about camps, and cleaned up 240 of them in 2018.

The City says it can’t release numbers of camps in specific neighbourhoods or areas, but it is noted that they are both widespread and typically closer to commercial sectors.

Chad Krahn

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“The approach taken in 2018 was really unique because it involved four departments; Social Planning, Municipal Policing, Parks and Public Works,” says Trevor Poth, Parks Superintendent. “The greatest complexity was for us to build a program that engaged all four appropriately and got the right people out onto those sites to work with individuals.”

Also chief amongst the challenges was keeping crews safe, and thankfully, Poth says, there were no injuries sustained during any of the camp clean-ups.

“The greatest thing we’ll be doing different is further engagement with the social agencies that can actually help people that are sleeping rough,” says Poth. “The City’s goal is to try and get the people sleeping rough the social supports they need to get them out of our parks, off the streets, and into consistent housing that meets their needs.”

Poth admits that 2018 being the program’s first year, there were likely gaps in The City’s communication to citizens with respect to how camps were being addressed.

The program’s policy has stated from the start that clean-up would happen within two weeks of a complaint, but Poth says their average turnaround was seven to eight days.

Chad Krahn, vice-president of the Riverside Meadows Community Association, says the communication around this is where he thought The City failed the hardest.

“We had a follow-up meeting with Parks and they said they’d be cleaned up within two weeks, but we thought it would be a much shorter timeframe,” says Krahn, who notes it wasn’t often made clear to those who complained which day clean-up would be occurring.

“I don’t get The City’s reliance on stuff to come from the provincial government rather than finding made in Red Deer solutions.”

Residents in Riverside Meadows, which is undoubtedly a hot spot for rough sleeper camps, genuinely want to see rough sleepers get help, according to Krahn.

“Camps typically make things worse (for a neighbourhood), and for people, this is their home. People hanging out in the bushes make the park space much less inviting, so it’s continually tougher to be compassionate,” Krahn explains. “One thing that’s changed is that the Mustard Seed put up ‘No Loitering’ signs. Maybe that’ll make a difference this summer.”

Furthermore, Krahn believes Red Deer is in the unfortunate position of having supervised consumption currently in the form of a temporary overdose prevention site, but without a permanent recovery centre.

Speaking Jan. 11 at City Hall following week one of budget debate, Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer called the clean-up of rough sleeper camps a band-aid solution.

“It is temporary until we receive the response we need as a community from the provincial government and there’s a full exercise of leadership giving us the infrastructure we need for those social and health facilities,” she stated.

“I don’t think the public ever looks favourably upon short-term band-aid solutions, but it’s the position that The City is in because of the lack of provincial funding on that issue. Our approach is a one-more-year approach and we hope we see the long-term solution come to fruition this year by the province adequately funding the shelter and health supports that are necessary.”

Poth says everyone has the same goal in mind at the end of the day.

“As a mid-sized city in Alberta during a difficult economic time, we recognize that rough sleepers and homelessness in general is a major issue, and now that we’re working consistently with Social Planning, municipal peace officers and the RCMP, as well as Public Works and Parks, we’re starting to get some new perspectives on how we can better manage the situation… and get the social supports in place for people to get out of that vicious circle of homelessness,” he says.

“The Parks Department’s number one goal, as always, is to ensure that our parks are safe and accessible to the public, and we think that in 2019, people will feel more comfortable in the parks than they were in 2018.”