Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) Update - January 2020 - Beltline Neighbourhoods Association

Since the Supervised Consumption Site opened at the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre in early 2018 we've been closely engaged with Alberta Health Services, the City of Calgary, Calgary Police Service, residents and businesses in the area.

Our January 2020 update on the Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) at the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre shows the latest Calgary Police Service statistics indicated publicly generated calls for service around the SCS are mostly below trends for the Centre City. Meanwhile, the latest Alberta Health Service (AHS) statistics show a continued decrease in the rate of opioid related deaths in Calgary.

Most Types of Public Calls for Service Around the SCS Tracking At Or Below Levels for Rest of City Centre: Latest CPS Report

The Calgary Police Service began releasing quarterly statistical reports for the area 250m around the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre at the beginning of 2019 after they added more proactive police presence in the area in response to concerns raised by local residents and businesses.

According to the CPS Q3 2019 report, calls related to Disorder, Violence, Break & Enters, and Vehicle Crime in the 250m area around the SCS are trending at or below the percentage change over the 3-year average for the City Centre, which includes the rest of the Beltline, Downtown, Chinatown, East Village, Downtown West and Eau Claire.

Note that smaller absolute values in drug related calls resulted in large percentage changes. In Q3 2019, there were 28 public generated calls for service related to drugs in the 250m area around the SCS, 16 calls (127%) above the three-year average. These calls consisted primarily of drug use/possession complaints (25 calls). Meanwhile in rest of the City Centre, 144 drug related calls for services were made during the same time period.

The lower crime levels around the SCS are at least in part due to continued increased proactive police presence in the area.

Trend in Public Generated Calls for Service Over 3-Year Average: Q3 2019

250m Around Sheldon Chumir Health Centre

City Centre

All of Calgary

Disorder

15%

Drugs

127%

12%

Violence

30%

13%

Break & Enters

33%

54%

20%

Vehicle Crime

33%

94%

14%

Current trends in publicly generated calls for services over 3-year average as reported in Calgary Police Service's Crime & Disorder near the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre’s Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) Facility 2019 Statistical Overview: Third Quarter Report.

Calgary City Centre's Greater Crime Trend

The Q3 2019 CPS report marked the third consecutive quarter that calls for service related to Break & Enters and Vehicle Crime in the City Centre showed a significant increasing trend over the three year average at or in most cases, above the trend for the 250m area around the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre.

The trend for publicly generated calls for service related to Break and Enters in the Centre City continues to exceed the trend in the 250m area around the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre according to the Calgary Police Service Crime & Disorder near the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre’s Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) Facility 2019 Statistical Overview: Third Quarter Report.

The trend for publicly generated calls for service related to Vehicle Crime in the Centre City continues to exceed the trend in the 250m area around the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre according to the Calgary Police Service Crime & Disorder near the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre’s Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) Facility 2019 Statistical Overview: Third Quarter Report.

Calls for Re-Establishing City Centre Police Station Still Ignored

The Beltline Neighbourhoods Association and several other community partners in the City Centre continue to advocate for Calgary Police Service to re-establish a City Centre Police station since the Victoria Park CPS Station was closed in 2017. Calgary is now the only major city in Canada without a permanent downtown police presence to the detriment of residents and businesses as the city grapples with the current drug addictions crisis.

Calgary's Increasing Methamphetamine Problem

According to the Q3 2019 CPS Report, the number of seizures of methamphetamine across Calgary has increased drastically since 2013 and now far exceeds that of fentanyl, heroin and crack/cocaine.

Drug seizure occurrences as reported in CPS's Crime & Disorder near the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre’s Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) Facility 2019 Statistical Overview: Third Quarter.

Latest Statistics from Alberta Health Services in Calgary Shows Decreasing Rate of Overdoses

Here are some of the latest statistics from the November 2019 report by Alberta Health Services for the Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) at the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre.

In November 2019, AHS health care staff reversed 43 overdoses and made 97 referrals to SCS clients for wraparound health services including 36 for shelter/housing and 7 for treatment/detox.

Safeworks SCS Summary of Visits and Overdoses by Month

Safeworks SCS Summary of Referrals by Month

According to the Q3 2019 Alberta Opioid Response Surveillance Report, the number of carfentanil cases peaked in the last quarter of 2017 (70 deaths), and since then, the numbers have decreased, with 55 occurring in the first nine months of 2019. Non-fentanyl opioid related deaths are also on the decline.

Number of apparent accidental drug poisoning deaths related to carfentanil by place of death - Q3 2019 Alberta Opiod Response Surveillance Report.

Number of apparent accidental drug poisoning deaths related to an opiod other than fentanyl by place of death - Q3 2019 Alberta Opiod Response Surveillance Report.

How we've been supporting the Beltline

SCS Community Liaison Committee

A solution-focused SCS Community Liaison Committee run by Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the BNA continues to meet approximately once per month to monitor the operations of the SCS, table community issues in the area and work towards solutions. The committee has been meeting since December 2018.

If you are interested in participating on this committee please contact us at [email protected]

Events Programming in Central Memorial Park

We worked with the City of Calgary Parks and Memorial Park Library to help fill Central Memorial Park with great events in 2019, including:

Neighbour Day / BUMP 2019 Artist Lineup Launch (June 15, 2019)
DJs in the Park (multiple dates)
Movies in the Park (multiple dates)
Chess meet-ups (multiple dates)

Watch for an upcoming Winter Carnival in Memorial Park announcement for Family-Day Weekend in February.

Other Updates

Sidewalk Citizen in Memorial Park | NOW OPEN

Sidewalk Citizen, the beloved bakery & eatery at the bottom of the Simmons Building in the East Village, is now open in Central Memorial Park in the former Provision and Boxwood restaurant space. The new site was renovated by Studio North to make a beautiful enclosure over the patio.

The restaurant, serving modern Israeli-inspired fare made with local ingredients, was listed as one of the Best New Restaurants of 2019 by the Calgary Herald. Check out the restaurant review in Avenue Magazine.

Beltline DOAP Team Operating

The Downtown Outreach Addictions Partnership (DOAP) is often the first point of contact with vulnerable individuals in the community, and this is a critical first step in connecting these people with the support that they need. A Beltline-dedicated DOAP team continues to operate specifically in the Beltline area in addition to the Downtown Core team and city-wide team.

24-hour SCS Outreach Team: Safeworks Connect

The SCS Outreach team Safeworks Connect has started working around the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre. The team made up of pairs of health care and social workers will be in the community 7-days a week most times of day to provide supports for homeless suffering from addictions and engage with community residents and businesses to continue to improve integration of the SCS with the community.

Needle Drop Box Relocations

The Calgary Fire Department (CFD) manages the City's needle dropbox program. These are the yellow drop boxes you see around town that have been in operation for years. The City has begun consolidating needle pickup data across multiple departments internally (Parks, CFD, CPS, etc.) as well as externally (DOAP Team) to reassess needle dropbox locations. The CFD has advised they will be working to redistribute some of the drop boxes this fall to address gaps in their placements.

Based on newly analyzed data, two new drop boxes have been added: one near the Uptown Bottle Depot at 631 10 Ave SW and another outside the Palliser Parkade at 120 10 Ave SE.

SCS for East Calgary and other Areas put on hold

A new mobile SCS that was planned to serve East Calgary in the Forest Lawn area has been put on hold by the Alberta Government. On May 2nd, the mobile site opened it's doors to the public for a tour.

The addictions crisis is a city-wide problem and the BNA supports more SCS services across Calgary to reduce the number of overdose deaths and provide more opportunities for connections to recovery services. The maps below show the apparent accidental opioid poisoning deaths in Calgary based on place of overdose and EMS responses related to opioid related events from January 1, 2019 to September 30, 2019.

Apparent accidental opioid poisoning deaths, by Municipality (based on place of overdose). January 1, 2019 to September 30, 2019 from the Alberta Opioid Response Surveillance Report - Q3 2019.

Count of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) responses to opioid related events from January 1, 2019 to September 30, 2019 from the Alberta Opioid Response Surveillance Report - Q3 2019.

Government of Alberta SCS Review

The Government of Alberta is undertaking an assessment of supervised consumption services (SCS) in Alberta. An eight-member committee has been appointed to lead this review and engage with Albertans. The results of their report are expected early in 2020.

January 2020 - Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) Update