Alberta plans to expand navigation centre concept to Calgary

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The Alberta government is characterizing the first two months of its Edmonton navigation and support centre for those experiencing homelssness as a success, and is planning to make the program permanent as well as planning to open a similar facility in Calgary.

Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon told reporters late Tuesday that, to date, more than 700 individuals have accessed the centre, resulting in more than 2,200 referrals for services.

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“It is a life-changing impact that having the services together in a single location is having on the lives of people living in encampments,” he said.

“With this population it’s hard to connect them with those services unless we bring it all together.”

He went on to say that more than 500 connections have been made between individuals and shelter and housing programs, though it appears few of them have resulted in permanent housing.

Nixon estimated about half of those individuals are in transitional housing programs and the other half are housed in the province’s emergency shelter system.

The navigation centre operates out of the Karis Centre in the Hope Mission shelter on 107 Street.

It was opened in mid-January after police escalated the teardown of hundreds of homeless encampments across the city and a day after a lawsuit over the city’s encampment removals was dismissed.

The centres are designed as a “one-stop shop” reception centre and works through a triage system to take in displaced residents.

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People evicted from camps can voluntarily take free shuttle rides to access the health services, showers and food onsite, and connect with workers from social services to get emergency shelter, housing and cultural supports, and access to detox centres.

Available assistance there also includes Indigenous cultural supports, help navigating the shelter, housing and income support systems, updated identification cards, as well as health and addiction services.

A city bus is also made available to bring people to the centre with assistance from Alberta Sheriffs.

Both Premier Danielle Smith and Nixon indicated a similar system was coming to Calgary, though not necessarily in other major Alberta cities.

“We will open them wherever the numbers warrant,” Smith said Tuesday. “It could be in other mid-sized communities there’s another approach we can take.”

“The single point of access to allow people into a centre that allows them access to multiple services is a model that should be replicated.”

Smith said the plans for a Calgary centre is already being worked on with Nixon saying there should be more to say on it in the “coming months.”

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As he stated last week, Edmonton police Chief Dale McFee claimed that there had been “no more” encampment-related deaths and that activity around encampments had gone down significantly.

“The further along we are in the operations, the less encampment displacement we’re seeing. While there are certainly those that choose to move along locations instead of going to the navigation centre, this is decreasing week to week.”

He said 761 encampment sites had been cleared as of Tuesday with about 28 remaining that police still need to deal with across the city.

“The reality is they’re getting smaller every day. People are getting connected with services,” he said.

He said while the looming warmer seasonal weather may result in people returning to live outdoors, he described the centre system as a “blueprint for success that holds true regardless of season. ”

“This is the foundation of a permanent approach.”

— with files from Lisa Johnson and Lauren Boothby

mblack@postmedia.com

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