On March 30th, CBC reported that "the Telus Convention Centre in downtown Calgary will serve as a shelter for the city's homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic." The provincial government made this decision upon overruling the city of Calgary's efforts to house the homeless in hotels as Calgary's shelters are overflowing. Although we have a host of humanitarian concerns around this decision, even economically it makes no sense. Mayor Nenshi tells us "it's roughly the same costs [and] it certainly works much better for isolation." Alberta’s Community and Social Services Minister Rajan Sawhney said that "renting the convention hall carries a higher cost per person."

The primary argument that is being made in favor of the convention centre is that housing the homeless in readily furnished hotel rooms takes longer than making arrangements for 350 people in a barren and unprepared convention centre. Although the UCP has not ruled hotels out entirely, we demand that they entirely rule out the convention centre as a feasible option because there is no reason that furnished hotel rooms are not ready to house people immediately. Without walls, without doors, without adequate sanitation, and without basic humane conditions, this convention centre will serve as a breeding ground for the Corona Virus.

Another argument we have seen is about the lack of staff available to service the hotels should homeless people be placed in them. To this we point out that convention centres would actually require more staff than hotels because mass housing will breed social and health issues that will require more intervention from workers. In addition to this, convention centres will create conditions for staff that are much more unsanitary and dangerous.

If there is anything to be learned from this global health crisis, it is that we are only as safe as the most vulnerable of us. Thus, the decision of the convention centre is an assault on public well-being at large.

Please sign this petition because we will be including it in our letter to the provincial government to urge them to make the right decision. We highly encourage you to use our letter format (posted below) to reach out to your elected officials (premier@gov.ab.ca) and to leave a voicemail for Premier Kenney at 780 427-2251. We can not stress enough how important it is to email and call in order to effectively put pressure on the provincial government!

Thank you all so much for signing, emailing, calling, and sharing.

References:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/nenshi-housing-homeless-calgary-overruled-1.5515159?cmp=rss

https://globalnews.ca/news/6760366/calgary-telus-convention-centre-emergency-shelter-covid-19-coronavirus/