Happy Earth Day! First started in 1970, April 22 marks the 54^th annual earth day! In today’s short blog post, we wanted to talk about the challenges of being environmentally conscious while being unhoused, and to share a bit about how Alpha House works to reduce our environmental footprint.

In the conversation about encampments, we hear a lot from some community members about how unhoused encampments leave behind debris. The most common refrain we hear is that they create a lot of waste and, not only is this an ‘eyesore,’ ‘gross,’ and ‘a major problem,’ it is also an environmental issue. We aren’t here to make excuses for litter or inappropriate waste but we do want to shed some light on a hypocrisy that exists when we talk about waste left behind from people experiencing homelessness. We make garbage and waste too; theirs is just more visible than ours – and the reason it’s more visible isn’t their fault at all.

Each individual household is responsible for a significant amount of waste; the difference for households, however, is that most households in North America have access to convenient ways to dispose of their waste that typically require minimal effort on the part of the individual. Unhoused individuals main way of disposing of waste is public garbage bins – not always conveniently located, not a solution to human waste, and not easily utilized without also having ongoing access to garbage bags. It might sound fairly inconsequential at first, but imagine if EVERY TIME you needed to dispose of a single piece of garbage— instead of disposing of it in a garbage bag in a bin in the next room, you had to walk an unknown distance to the nearest garbage bin. Or, imagine that EACH TIME the garbage bag in your kitchen was full, you didn’t just have to take it out back to a black or green bin that you never thought about again because Residential waste services picked it up every 1-2 weeks, you had to hump it to that far away garbage bin. Imagine if instead of purchasing a 100 pack of garbage bags at the store to last you a few weeks/months, you had to keep reusing the same soiled bag over and over.

The reality of homelessness is often far more complex than we like to think about. A common response to talking about these complications is for people to offer solutions: “It’s really easy to do ‘X’ and then the problem wouldn’t happen,” “If they just did ‘Y’ then they wouldn’t have to think about that issue,” or “It’s not hard to insert something that may not be hard but is not something top of mind when you’re homeless.”

With the frequency in which every one of us disposes of waste on a daily basis, we can see the barrier that exists for unhoused individuals to responsibly dispose of their waste regularly, and how it can quickly become unmanageable when compounded with other challenges like addictions, tri-morbidities, and/or mental health. The reality is that ecological responsibility is not a burden that can always be shared equally. It doesn’t mean we excuse poor environmental actions, it means we do the best we can until we have the means to do better, and then we do better.

How is Alpha House working on reducing our impact on the environment?

• Planning a community cleanup? Our Needle Response Team would love to be a part of it! Reach out to [email protected] for more information
• Speaking of community cleanups, we’ve hosted a number of community cleanups over the past couple of years to reduce waste in the communities that we serve and have several more on the docket this spring/summer
• We partner with SkipTheDepot to dispose of all of our bottle recycling
• We partner with SkipTheDepot to help us recycle textiles that we can’t use, like damaged clothing we can’t distribute to our clients
• We partner with the City of Calgary as a designated drop-off location for reusable shopping bags, which we distribute to clients to help them carry their belongings

Visit the official page for Earth Day 2024 to learn more about the environmental crisis our planet is facing and to find Earth Day focused events near you.

The City of Calgary’s Housing Strategy: ‘Home is Here’ outlines 98 action items to ensure Calgarians have an affordable place to call home. One of the main tactics for addressing both the shortage of houses available to those who need them and the need for different types of housing options in the city is to increase the supply of housing.

Scarcity of housing means a lack of housing affordability – pushing groups with more income to capture the part of the market previously accessed by lower income groups, whose options are further reduced to co-habitation with friends and family or living in spaces that are unsafe or unhealthy. Scarcity of housing, for the same reasons, forces individuals into units that don’t adequately meet their mental, physical, or psychological needs. For many, including Alpha House’s clients, this doesn’t just mean being housed in a smaller unit (1-bedroom vs 2-bedroom for example), it could mean:

• an inability to be housed in a certain community where they have connections
• an inability to be housed with caseworker supports due to a lack of supportive housing options
• an inability to be housed where mobility challenges are supported
• an inability to be housed in a neighbourhood with a familiar culture

…and many other needs that may not be met due to a lack of diversity and choice around our housing options.

Therefore, on top of the affordability barrier, a second challenge that currently impacts Calgarians is an inadequate spectrum of housing options. Different types of housing options could include single-detached, rowhouse, townhouse, apartment, and semi-detached. Historic data shows single-detached housing as making up 58.3% of housing type in the city, which generally favours certain socio-economic groups. To increase the number of 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom apartments available for clients in our Community Housing program, for example, would mean supporting an increase in developments like rowhouses, townhouses, and apartments complexes. An increase in the availability of these units will lower the prices of these same units due to an increase in supply; the idea being that these price decreases will make renting/owning a rowhouse, for example, more accessible for someone who is living in smaller or shared accommodations and wants to move into a bigger space. As these individuals move into bigger spaces, the availability of 1-bedroom apartments increases thereby making them more affordable for those with lower incomes.

One of the main reasons for the constrained supply of housing and housing diversity is that the current land use districts (zones) in approximately 60% of Calgary’s residential areas do not allow for a choice of housing beyond single-detached or semi-detached homes. Allowing for diversity in housing structures within each community better suits the wide array of individual and family needs within the city, and a mixture of rental and ownership properties at market and non-market (subsidized) rates offers people at all income levels access to safe and stable housing options.

Alpha House sees firsthand the need for diversity in types of housing to meet the unique needs of the clients we serve and, as a result, we whole-heartedly support the City of Calgary proposal to “rezone all residential parcels that currently only allow for 1 or 2 units, it will be easier for property owners to add additional housing varieties across the city, without having to go through the additional steps of a Land Use change Amendment application.” This application process can take upwards of 6-months to process, maybe longer if there are other issues to be resolved with.

Rezoning will not solve all our housing-related problems, but it is a significant step forward in supporting affordability for Calgarians through increased housing supply and increased diversity in housing supply.

The City of Calgary Council’s recently passed strategy has five main points:

• Increase the supply of housing
• Support affordable housing providers
• Enable the City’s housing subsidiaries to improve service delivery
• Ensure diverse housing choice
• Address the affordable housing needs of Indigenous people.

This strategy was adopted on September 16, 2023 with implementation plans stretched out over 2024-2030. The current public hearing about the specific rezoning amendment is April 22, 2024. If you are someone who has asked themselves how you can support reducing homelessness in the City of Calgary, we urge you to write to your councillor and tell them you support re-zoning efforts.

The City of Calgary has an excellent frequently asked questions page for those concerned about what re-zoning could look like in their neighbourhood. https://www.calgary.ca/planning/projects/rezoning-for-housing/faq.html

April 7^th is World Health Day, dated on the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948 and celebrated annually! Each year the WHO uses World Health Day to draw attention to a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world. The theme for 2024 is ‘My health, my right’, chosen to champion the right of people across the world having access to quality health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination.[1]

In Canada, the difference in the number of people who need blood donations or know someone who needs them is much greater than the number of people who actually donate. Canadian Blood Services (CBS) reports that 52% of people have indicated that they have, or their family member has, needed blood or blood products at some point in their life. In contrast, CBS says their data indicates that about 1 in 2 people are eligible to donate blood and plasma, but most have not donated.[2]

As a social service agency, Alpha House knows acutely the impact of a lack of access to healthcare, a lack of adequate supports for physical (and mental) health, and the long-term detriments when health is not treated as a right. There are, of course, many conversations about healthcare in Alberta these days. Something Alpha House did recently to take more ownership in supporting health measures was setting up a blood donation team as an agency! We owe special thanks for the idea to one of our staff members who had a personal connection to advocating for this setup.

Alpha House is now what is called a “Partner for Life” with CBS and we tested out our first blood drive last month. Together, a group of staff members got on the (aptly named) ‘Lifebus’ and headed off to our appointments.

When we arrived at Canadian Blood Services, we went upstairs to check in.

• If it’s your first time donating, then you’ll need your ID and to fill out a quick questionnaire that’ll get you set up with a profile
• You’ll also get a blood donor card in the mail a few weeks after your first donation
• After all the paperwork is done, you’ll be in the waiting area for a couple of minutes with the opportunity to enjoy some free snacks and beverages before your donation

The blood donation itself can take up to 15 minutes, after which you can help yourself to more snacks and drinks to help restore your blood volume levels faster! The process for our staff was easy, quick, and meaningful AND (no surprises!) the Canadian Blood Services staff were very kind, patient, and made sure everyone was comfortable before, during, and after the donation.

The best thing about Alpha House becoming a ‘Partner for Life’ is we have another cool way for community members to join our work and build community with us!  Anyone can join us and become a “Champion for Life.”

Together we can unite to raise awareness, donate blood or plasma, or support the stem cell or organ donation registries. As part of Alpha House’s Team, you can help have a direct impact on patients in Canada and the families who love them. If you join our team and become a “Champion for Life,” your donations contribute to Alpha House’s overall count!

We will be continuing to organize team events for donating blood for our staff because it’s important to our staff, but also because of how closely it aligns with our agency’s values and the population that we serve; many of our clients see their health deteriorate because of being on the street, lacking access to basic hygiene and adequate food supply, and facing other hardships. We will also continue spreading the word through our social media channels and encourage you to join our team.

Alpha House is a strong advocate for this year’s World Health Day theme: ‘My health, my right’ – recognizing healthcare is a RIGHT; a blood donation is one tiny part of healthcare that can make an enormous difference for a client of ours or anyone who finds themselves in such a situation of need and we believe in being a part of individuals having access to blood donations (and other healthcare) when they’re needed most.

If you want to join Alpha House’s blood donation team as a Champion for Life, check out the instructions here or via the graphic on top of the page!

1. Log in or create an account on blood.ca or the GiveBlood App
2. Click on the “Partners” tab
3. Click “Join an existing team”
4. Search “Alpha House” or our team number “CALG0117318”
5. Select “Yes” and then click “Join”
6. Welcome to the team! Click “Book” to get started and make an appointment

Remember to get a good night’s sleep and drink plenty of water before your donation!

[1]https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day; https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2024

[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canadian-blood-services-needs-thousands-more-canadians-to-roll-up-their-sleeves-1.6879312