'Brilliant' proposal for vacant building could help improve Calgary's public safety

Calgary's Greyhound Station ceased services in November 2018 and the building has been vacant pretty much ever since.

It hasn't seen regular bus services in more than four years, but Calgary's old Greyhound bus terminal could still serve the city – exactly how is now up to a city committee.

City employees are meeting Wednesday to discuss what sort of gaps the vacant station, on 16th Street S.W., could fill but some community members feel the structure could serve a higher purpose than just shuttling passengers.

According to the city, the original plan for the building was to rent it out to a regular tenant, but now Calgary's infrastructure and planning committee wants to invest money in the site, with that money recovered over time.

Kelly Sundberg, an associate professor of justice studies at Mount Royal University, says the city could use the building to help improve access to services for Calgary's vulnerable population.

That idea was presented as a community hub at a development conference in 2021. Sundberg attended that conference and met with Erica Hansen, the woman who created it.

Depending on how much the city is willing to put into the project, Sundberg says it could have a real positive effect.

"The unfortunate reality is most politicians and governments divvy out little handout grants – here's $1 million, here's $2 million," he told CTV News on Wednesday. "It's a patchwork approach.

"What we've seen recently, which is really concerning, is knee-jerk reactions that are being proposed by the premier and others, which make no sense."

He say recent proposals, such as adjusting police and peace officer patrols, won't work but something like a community hub will.

"We need to make these decisions using an evidence-based, broad spectrum, well thought out, detailed approach. No more of this ad-hoc, off-the-cuff, we need to move transit security to the police and this sort of nonsense," Sundberg said.

NOT ANOTHER DROP-IN CENTRE

Some of the services at the site include a supervised consumption site and addictions treatment and therapy clinics. Outside, community gardens could be built and there could also be lockers and washrooms with shower facilities.

The proposed community hub would also include access to many services that could help the city's homeless improve their lives, such as mental health services, help with housing and drug use education.

Access to technology is also important, so it would also contain employment assistance with public computer access.

Hansen's renderings of the site suggests an inviting place for Calgary's homeless to relax and access essential services to improve their lives. (Supplied)

The proposal isn't to create a second Drop-In Centre in Calgary, Sundberg says, but to create an actual place that provides solutions.

"Let's come together, as a community, let's create a council of experts that can look at things and let's do this right – have an institute that all that institute does is examine these problems that are facing our city and other urban centres and that is what informs the city and what our tax dollars go to."

Hansen says the Drop-In Centre is a shelter but her proposal is something different.

"In shelters, often people are not meant to stay there during the day. This is meant to be sort of a different facility where people can go during the day. It's not a shelter to sleep at night."

The design is supposed to be somewhere that people can go to during the day, she says.

"(It's) a dedicated and dignified space for people to go during the day where they can just gather, relax, exist or seek help or services."

THE PERFECT LOCATION

Hansen says the vacant Greyhound Station is a great location for this kind of project.

"A lot of cities don't have a site like that so close to their urban core that isn't slated for immediate development," said Hansen in an interview with CTV News.

"It also has those really amazing natural barriers that make the site really unique."

Those include the Bow River in the north, CP railway lines to the south and 14th Street to the east.

Hansen says those all work together to separate the hub from nearby communities.

Sundberg says Hansen's proposal is a "brilliant" suggestion for Calgary's homeless population.

"It would remove this population from the back alleys, the train stations, the stoops. It stands as means to get people the treatment they need – it can actually help people."

By bringing up her proposal again, Hansen hopes to gain the interest of city council to move her proposal ahead.

"The project really needs a champion – someone from the city," she said. "I've talked to people from lots of different kinds of disciplines, so in health care and mental health and addictions and law enforcement and fire and in the design community.

"But having a champion in the city council would be, I think, the big push."

(With files from Austin Lee)