Calgary getting one-stop support centre for vulnerable residents
Posted Jun 5, 2024 5:27 pm.
Last Updated Jun 5, 2024 6:59 pm.
The Alberta government has announced a one-stop support centre for vulnerable Calgarians will open downtown next month.
Building on the success of a facility in Edmonton that opened in January, Calgary’s new navigation and support centre will offer services like income support, housing options, addiction treatment, and helping people get identification.
“Clients will receive proper medical care for their wounds and referrals for mental health and addiction treatment,” said Premier Danielle Smith, who was on hand for the Wednesday morning announcement, alongside Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon and Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
“They will find the stability of secure living arrangements,” Smith says. “They’ll get connections to financial and employment services and they’ll get ID immediately so that they can start accessing supports in the future.”
The new centre will open in July at the Salvation Army Centre of Hope on 9 Avenue SE.
The Edmonton navigation centre was set up to specifically to deal with the issue of homeless encampments in that city, but Gondek says Calgary has different challenges.
“This navigation centre for Calgary is not in response to an encampment issue within Calgary,” Gondek says.
She adds the city has encampment outreach teams and a strong partnership between police, the city and outreach service providers.
Nixon noted several other operating differences between the two centres, noting Edmonton had 30 overnight beds and the Calgary centre is going to start with 10 overnight beds.
READ MORE: Homeless Calgarians flocking to public transit due to lack of safe shelter spaces
“Our main goal would be to navigate somebody into housing circumstances within 24 hours of them coming through the navigation centre,” Nixon says.
Clients will receive proper medical care for their wounds and referrals for mental health and addiction treatment. The centre will also aim to provide the stability of secure living arrangements.
People will get connections to financial and employment services and they will get ID immediately so that they can start accessing supports in the future.
The province previously said the navigation centre model in Edmonton has exceeded expectations. Nixon said, as of late March, more than 700 people had accessed its services, resulting in more than 2,200 referrals to services such as housing, health supports, addiction recovery and Indigenous support.
