Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) Update - September 2019

We've been closely engaged with Alberta Health Services, the City of Calgary, Calgary Police Service, local residents and businesses. Here is our September 2019 update on the Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) at the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre.

SCS Community Liaison Committee

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

Events Programming in Central Memorial Park

We're working with the City of Calgary Parks, local Business Improvement Areas, and Memorial Park Library to help fill Central Memorial Park with great events. Check out the events calendar below (click to enlarge).

This summer, the BNA worked in partnership with the City of Calgary to host a pile of events at Central Memorial Park including:

Neighbour Day
Beltline Urban Murals Project (BUMP) Artist Lineup Launch
DJs in the Park
Movies in the Park
Chess meet-ups

Here is a calendar of upcoming events this September in Central Memorial Park.

Sidewalk Citizen Coming to Memorial Park

Sidewalk Citizen, the beloved bakery & eatery at the bottom of the Simmons Building in the East Village, is opening a new location in Central Memorial Park in the former Provision and Boxwood restaurant space. The new site is currently undergoing some renovations by Studio North to make a beautiful enclosure over the patio and is anticipated to open this October.

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 Relocation

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.

SCS for East Calgary Put on hold

A new mobile SCS is 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 connections to recovery services.

Government of Alberta SCS Review

The Government of Alberta is undertaking a socio-economic assessment of supervised consumption services (SCS) in our province. An eight-member committee has been appointed to lead this review and engage with Albertans.

Public engagement sessions are being held in areas with currently operating or proposed SCS. Local area residents are encouraged to attend these sessions and share their thoughts with the Review Committee.

Calgary - Wednesday, September 11 and Thursday, September 12, 5 to 9 pm - Boyce Theatre, BMO Centre, 1410 Olympic Way SE

Those interested in attending a public engagement session are encouraged to visit www.alberta.ca/scsreview to indicate their preferred date and time. This website will also house an online survey, which will be open to all Albertans.

A key objective of this review is to ensure the committee is hearing from as many Albertans as possible and capturing a broad cross-section of voices and perspectives.

Latest Statistics from Alberta Health Services in Calgary

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

In July 2019, 47 overdoses were reversed by health care staff and 348 referrals were made to SCS clients for wraparound health services including 123 for housing and 25 for treatment/detox.

Safeworks SCS Summary of Visits and Overdoses by Month

Safeworks SCS Summary of Referrals by Month

Latest Statistics from Calgary Police Services - Q2 2019 Report

Calgary Police Service have redeployed 11 officers to the Beltline and Downtown to provide more presence on the street and make the area safer for everyone. Bike police and mounted police will also be in and around Central Memorial Park so don't be surprised if you see some horses in the neighbourhood.

Trends in Public Generated Calls for Service in 250m SCS Study-Area at a Glance

Disorder - 96 calls (34%) ⬆️ over 3-year average, 1 point ⬇️ from Q1 2019 Report
Drugs-related - 21 calls (146%) ⬆️ over 3-year average, 100 points ⬇️ from Q1 2019 Report
Violence - 1 incident (8%) ⬆️ over 3-year average, 32 points ⬇️ from Q1 2019 Report
Break & Enters - 4 incidents (25%) ⬇️ over 3-year average, 107 points ⬇️ from Q1 2019 Report
Vehicle Crime - 7 incidents (33%) ⬆️ over 3-year average, 21 points ⬆️ from Q1 2019 Report - note that there was a larger 52% increase in the Centre City overall

Disorder-related calls for service remain above the 3-year average for the area and unchanged change since Q1.

Drug-related calls for service also remain above the 3-year average, however, have shown a significant improvement against the 3-year average since Q1.

Violence-related calls for service also showed an improvement since Q1 and are now roughly on-par with the 3-year average for the area.

Break & Enters have decreased significantly below the 3-year average and have also improvemed since Q1. Note that this goes against the overall trend for Centre City, which is experiencing a 52% increase in Break & Enters.

Vehicle Crime remains above the 3-year average and has increased since Q1, however, has remained well below the overall (85% in Q2) increase in vehicle crime experienced in the Centre City.

Note that an increase in officer-generated calls for service coincided with the significant increase in beat officer patrols, increased mountain bike officer patrols, scheduled Mobile Command Vehicle presence and patrols, and increased focused drug trafficking enforcement since Q3 of 2018.

September 2019 - Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) Update