RE:December 29 Herald article by Jason VanRassel Beyond NIMBY (#2) TGCA firstly thanks Jason Van Rassel of the Calgary Herald for attempting to peel back another layer on the enigmatic onion that is the proposed old Quality Inn development by the Calgary Drop In Centre. As we have mentioned many times before it is all too easy for the press to frame this simply as an altruistic agency being met by possibly well-meaning but unenlightened NIMBY neighbours. This story is far more complex and we admire reporting that has the courage to dig through the tangled nuance. TGCA hopes that we have also had the doggedness to analyse this project on its own merits devoid of the often evocative surface tumult. Furthermore we have taken special notice when staunch affordable housing advocates such as Mayor Nenshi and previous Councillor Gael Macleod have cautioned us against supporting this project. The respected voice of Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF) CEO Diana Krecsy now echoes the earlier action of the province to rescind $5million in project grant money. Ms Krecsy is quoted as “the damage has been done it will hurt the overall cause of the sector” This reaffirms our feeling that If allowed to go forward the community will be but the first casualty, the clients will also suffer, but ultimately the placement and integration of special care facilities will be hobbled by city wide resistance for years to come. We are now beyond NIMBY & paradoxically to support affordable housing is oppose this project. Not Affordable Housing Ms Krecsy commends the DI for their shelter work downtown. This is very appropriate, their work is extremely important and needs to be recognized as fulfilling an important niche in the provision of emergency services, but it is also essential as she does to denounce the hotel project. It is not intended to be a shelter but the model is eerily similar. The concern we believe is that such a model will normalize the emergency of homelessness when the CHF goal is to eliminate it. Although it is consistently labelled as affordable housing. This definition is problematic as it is applicable to the old hotel project in only the broadest and imaginative of terms. The application to the city is to operate an “Assisted Living” facility. As the application is further examined however it is evident that there is no assistance as part of it. The applicant (CDIC) has at times referred to the project as “permanent housing” & at other times as “transitional housing” This seeming contradiction is however instructive in understanding the model proposed. It might best be labelled as “permanently transitional” as this evokes the evolution from the shelter model that constitutes the lion’s share of the CDIC operation. At best we might label the hotel project “affordable accommodation” as the CDIC has also at times described the project as the rejuvenation of “the working man’s hotel” not dissimilar to the Cecil A Philosophical Schism It is our observation that there is a fundamental spilt emergent between organizations that maybe analogous to the journey vs the destination. With the former it is the acts of giving & charity themselves that constitute the higher directive while the later has the focus on results & outcomes; the destination is to end homelessness. Although both are important the solutions driven horizon is in this case what should be prevalent. When confronted with the position of at least the proposal is better than nothing, we can only retort that it is however so much less than what we can do. Better than nothing is drifting back to a dystopian Dickensian past. The best we can do is a 21st century future where there is housing first for all. Marvin Quashnick publicservice@tgcacalgary
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 22:29:03 +0000
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