Transit-adjacent hubs for vulnerable Edmontonians could help city's transit woes: criminologist

An Alberta criminologist believes building mental health and addiction hubs near transit centres could help make the system safer.

Kelly Sundberg, a professor in the department of economics, justice and police studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said more security on transit wouldn't work without also addressing the root causes of disorder.

"In essence, we want to have the services needed for people close to where they need them," Sundberg said. "Otherwise, when we increase security on transit, people are going to move into the surrounding communities."

According to the province, there has been increasing disorder on the Edmonton Transit Service in recent years, with a 75 per cent increase in violent crimes at LRT and transit centres between July 2022 and January 2023.

• Crime within Edmonton's transit system continues to escalate, despite new efforts by police and their partners

The city has tried to address safety concerns by expanding the Community Outreach Transit Team and launching a new campaign to encourage bystanders to "safely intervene" in public spaces.

The Alberta government has also responded with the promise of 12 more Police and Crisis Teams (PACT) for Edmonton and 50 new police officers to try and curb violent crime and intimidation on public transit.

However, Sundberg said more officers won't make transit safer long term or reduce the ongoing strain on emergency services or the associated costs.

"Every day when an ambulance, a fire truck [or] police respond to somebody in a mental distress or overdose [or] at a transit node, it's costing us thousands of dollars," he added.

Building service centres within 500 metres of major transit hubs would complement increased security measures by giving people somewhere to go if they are removed or arrested, which Sundberg said is a short-term solution.

"No one is going to jail for any extended period of time for being disruptive or what have you in a transit station," he added. "Having a multi-service public service close to public spaces where they can get help is going to be far more affordable than sending them to remand.

"Because they're going to get out of remand, they're going to move back into the community. So let's start taking responsibility as a community in helping these vulnerable people."

'WE HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFUL'

Homeward Trust Edmonton, an organization that coordinates responses to homelessness and helps frontline-serving agencies access funding, lists 15 main organizations in Edmonton that provide resources to unhoused people.

Those services range from hot meals and hygiene services, to medical attention, emergency shelter, housing support, and mental health and addiction services.

Many of them, said Coun. Tim Carmell, already exist near transit hubs.

"A substantial number of the shelters that are already within Chinatown are already within walking distance of the MacEwan or the Churchill transit stations," Cartmell said Monday when asked about Sundberg's suggestion.

"We have shelter infrastructure that is not anywhere near capacity every night these days. Why is that?

"So if that current system is not welcoming and is not working, frankly, then how do we make that work and how do we apply those lessons to any other grander scheme that has more services, more partners, more locations?"

Homeward Trust reports that 2,888 people in Edmonton were living unhoused as of March 2023, with more than 700 of them living in unknown locations rather than shelters.

Until shortcomings in the current system are fixed, adding more services near transit could make the problem worse, Cartmell said.

"If we combine the effect of centres that are not welcoming with the effect of people going to transit centres because those places aren't welcoming, and [we] put them in the same place, all we've done is make a bigger problem," he added. "So we have to be very careful."

In October, Alberta announced the Action Plan on Homlessness, with $187 million over two years for addiction services and housing support. The plan included the pilot of a new service hub model at an Edmonton shelter, to be operational by the end of 2023. The hub would have on-site services including addiction treatment.

When asked about Sundberg's proposition that new centres should be built closer to transit nodes, the press secretary for the minister of mental health and addiction said municipalities are responsible for zoning and "treatment services are only able to operate in appropriately-zoned areas."

"In the case where a treatment or detox facility is not located near public transit, many operators provide shuttles and transportation services to reduce barriers to access," said Colin Aitchison in the statement.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson and Sean Amato