Drop-in Centre clients get safe living space
Program aims to move people into permanent housing in less than 30 days
A transitional housing building will provide temporary accommodations for Calgary Drop-in Centre clients, giving them a safe living space during the COVID-19 pandemic as they await a permanent home.
The program, launched as a collaborative initiative between the Drop-in Centre and Calgary Homeless Foundation, will be in place for six months, providing space for up to 80 people. The goal of the program is to move people into permanent housing in less than 30 days.
Drop-in Centre executive director Sandra Clarkson said the transitional housing project would help shelter clients stay healthy as the organization seeks to secure more affordable housing units to serve as permanent homes for people living homeless.
“We’ve been really focused on housing throughout the whole pandemic, but this provides an opportunity for people to get out of a congregate shelter setting so that they can really focus, without the distractions of being in that type of setting, on their housing plan and getting out into their permanent homes,” Clarkson said.
To ensure physical distancing at its downtown shelter site, the Drop-in Centre has reduced maximum capacity to around 227 people experiencing homelessness, down from more than 650 clients it would average per night prior to the pandemic. It has also opened two overflow shelters at the Telus Convention Centre and Centre 2507.
There have been 24 confirmed cases of COVID -19 among clients at the Drop-in Centre, according to Alberta Health. As of Monday, 17 of those cases were active.
Clarkson said more than 600 clients were tested in recent weeks and that no new cases had been recorded in the past seven days.
There were also two active cases and nine recoveries at Alpha House, along with two recovered cases at the Salvation Army, an Alberta Health spokesperson stated.
Gail Boehm, acting CEO of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, said the initiative would help alleviate crowding in shelter spaces.
“It’s needed to ensure that we can maintain all physical distancing and really, ultimately, in order for people to stay healthy they need a home, particularly during the pandemic,” she said.
“If you don’t have a place to wash your hands, if you don’t have a place to self-isolate, it’s very difficult to stay healthy.”
The Calgary Homeless Foundation is leveraging emergency federal dollars to fund the site. But Boehm said it’s cheaper to house people permanently than it is to fund transitional units.
“The temporary transitional spaces are really a Band-aid,” she said. “So really what we need is more affordable housing in the city so that people aren’t on the street in the first place.”
Close to 140 affordable housing units are slated to open in Calgary by the end of the year through a partnership with the Resolve campaign and Homespace Society. But Boehm said Calgary still needs around 15,000 affordable units.
The Drop-in Centre’s goal is to house 250 clients over the next few months. Clarkson said it has so far housed 113 people thanks to partnerships with landlords willing to offer affordable spaces.
“It’s an ongoing process. We are continually trying to house as many people as we possibly can,” she said.
“It’s about finding the right place for the right person. A lot of time and care goes into making sure that it’s an appropriate fit because our goal is that people never return to shelters.”
Since mid-march, Calgary’s Homeless-serving System of Care — a collaboration between the CHF, government, and community partners — has housed 74 adults, 33 families and nine youth to help relieve crowding at shelters.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the COVID-19 pandemic has given the community an opportunity to think differently about housing strategies for members of the homeless population.
“How about if we make a commitment that no homeless people ever go back to emergency shelter after the end of the pandemic?” he said.
The mayor added he was “grateful” Calgary hasn’t seen evidence of “major outbreaks” in the homeless population, noting the overflow shelters have worked well.
An assisted self-isolation site at a Calgary hotel was also set up to house people facing homelessness who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, are symptomatic, or have been in contact with a positive case.
More than 30 people remain in assisted self-isolation at the site, while upwards of 200 have been there since it opened in April.
Boehm said the COVID-19 pandemic has been “quite challenging” for the CHF and shelters.
“We had to move quite rapidly to try to lessen the spread of COVID-19 as much as we could,” she said. “Particularly at the beginning, it was quite challenging as we moved … to find spaces to allow for physical distancing.”