Public Safety with a Purpose: Addressing Social Disorder in Calgary

Monday, June 26, 2026

Over the past several months since starting my role as City Councillor, I’ve heard from many Calgarians about a growing sense of unease in our public spaces. Whether it’s in our downtown, in our communities, or in parks across Ward 8, residents, businesses, and community groups have shared their experiences with visible social disorder - public drug use, erratic behaviour, mess, and the complex challenges that come with addictions and mental health.

These concerns are real. And they matter.

At the same time, it’s equally important to recognize that the individuals at the centre of these challenges are also members of our community - people dealing with addiction, trauma, and housing instability. If we are going to make meaningful progress, we need to hold both realities at once: the right of Calgarians to feel safe where they live and work, and the responsibility to approach those in crisis with dignity and humanity.

That’s what I mean when I talk about public safety with a purpose.

Looking Beyond Symptoms

There’s a natural instinct to respond to disorder with enforcement alone. But the reality is, it would be both costly and impossible to try to arrest our way out of this issue. Police are an essential part of public safety - and as the complexity of challenges grow, they need more resources and support - but they are not designed to be, and should not be, our primary response to addictions and mental health crises.

Instead, we need to focus on root causes with emergency services and social services collaborating with their individual areas of expertise..

Mental health and addictions largely fall under provincial jurisdiction, but the impacts are local, felt daily on our streets, in our businesses, and at our homes. If we’re serious about reversing the trends we’re seeing, we need to coordinate investment in treatment, recovery, housing, enforcement, and prevention.

That’s why I lead the City’s Safer Together public safety strategy. I’m optimistic that it can help move us toward a more integrated approach that prioritizes long-term solutions over short-term fixes by ensuring everyone working on these issues, from CPS to Transit, Peace Officers to outreach groups and non-profits, are connecting and sharing strategies more cohesively. Hearing from each other on what is working – and what’s not – is crucial to helping mitigate the impacts on community while providing support. Safer Together finally gives us a way to achieve this.

What We’re Hearing and Doing at the Local Level

Recently, my office hosted a Safety Town Hall where residents identified specific areas of concern across Ward 8. We invited many of our City teams to this event, including CPS, Fire, Parking, Bylaw, and peace officers. Residents brought their concerns and questions directly to the people who could answer. In general, there is empathy for the people involved in social disorder and their struggles, but it doesn’t erase the fact that Ward 8 residents are regularly dealing with mess and property damage that costs money, time, and stress to consistently manage.  Because of the popularity of this event, we are hoping to host another one next spring.

In Sunalta, one of the main hot spots we hear about regularly, we’ve heard from community members and local businesses who are dealing with increasingly challenging situations. These conversations don’t happen in isolation. I’ve been in regular contact with Calgary Police Service, bylaw officers, the Sunalta Community Association, and the local provincial MLA Janet Eremenko to better understand the pressures on the ground and how we can respond more effectively. The pharmacy in the area that has been attracting issues is currently under review from the Alberta College of Pharmacy to ensure they are following appropriate guidelines.  Earlier this year, the SoRCE opened, with SafeLink moving upstairs. This has improved connections to resources for the unhoused that are regularly in the area while encouraging them to move on. I’m in consistent contact with Transit Officers and encouraging their presence in the area, along with CPS and Peace Officers. Sunalta Main Street is the next Main Streets project planned for the City once funding is in place. I’m working with this team to see what can be implemented to help address the social disorder in the area, including what potential can come from the empty lot beside the train station.

We’ve also been exploring new approaches to better support individuals who have frequent interactions with emergency services. These cases often reflect deeper systemic gaps as people cycle through police, healthcare, and social systems without ever receiving the sustained support they need. Addressing that is key to reducing both harm and repeated strain on public resources.

At the same time, there are smaller, practical steps that can make a difference. At Council we’re consistently dealing with issues that affect public safety and social disorder, directly and indirectly. Last fall, I brought forward a proposal - supported by Council - to fund the bathroom attendant program. It’s a simple intervention, but one that helps maintain cleanliness in public spaces while also providing a dignified, safe option for those without access to basic facilities. Having trained staff on site for each bathroom can be costly, but the public benefit is large, and I am hearing huge support for this to expand. Not only do publicly accessible bathrooms help to mitigate much of the worst mess we hear community members and businesses must deal with, but it helps everyone who uses our public spaces.

During these same budget discussions last November, I was able to secure funding for day spaces and daily street cleaning and encampment management around the Drop-In Centre but there is still a lot of work to do. Having somewhere for folks to go will help keep them out of the communities and in a warm space during winter, but there are many challenges to running these spaces that simply need more trained staff and more money to run successfully. Programs like street-cleaning and encampment management will also be more successful if they can expand to serve additional problem areas.

I’m hopeful the Safer Together plan will help to come up with better policies and ingenuity to support day spaces and the challenges they face so we can see tax dollars being used as efficiently as possible while still providing these spaces for those who need them.

Preparing for What Comes Next

Looking ahead, one of the most significant near-term challenges is the upcoming closure of the Supervised Consumption Site at the Sheldon Chumir. As I’ve said publicly, I’m concerned that without a coordinated plan, we risk displacing - rather than resolving - the issues associated with public consumption. For the history of this site, please read: As sun sets on Safeworks drug site, solutions to addiction crisis remain elusive - Yahoo News Canada

This isn’t about whether services should exist. It’s about how and where they’re delivered, and the collaborative approach that’s necessary to ensure communities are part of the conversation. We need solutions that are both compassionate and practical, and that don’t simply shift the burden from one neighbourhood to another.

Although we are unsure of what impact this closure will have on the surrounding community, I have been discussing this with our partners and residents. Please continue to update our office on your experiences. 

What You Can Do

I know it can feel frustrating, especially when the same issues happen repeatedly, but one of the most important things residents can do is continue to report what they’re seeing.

Data matters. It informs where City and Police resources are deployed and helps build the case for additional support.

• Report non-emergency issues through: https://www.calgary.ca/311.html
• Report criminal activity through: https://www.calgarypolice.ca/services/report-a-crime.html
• Learn who to call and when to call: Know your numbers: who to call

I appreciate that reporting every instance of passive drug use isn’t always practical, but when situations escalate or involve safety risks, those reports help ensure that the reality on the ground is reflected in decision-making.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can connect directly with Calgary Police through their “Coffee with a Uniform” sessions, which are regularly held by Community Resource Officers and provide an opportunity to ask questions and share concerns. They frequently post these events on CPS’ social media channels. Our office will do our best to attend the ones being held in Ward 8.

You can also write your provincial MLA, and let them know that our city and communities need additional support that will address the root causes of social disorder of mental health, addictions, and homelessness. While the jurisdictional boundaries of municipal and provincial governance can seem straight forward, how our systems of policing, justice, and mental health interact is incredibly integrated. If we don’t take a collaborative approach with adequate resources, we’ll be doomed to watch social disorder grow worse.   

A Balanced, Pragmatic Approach

There are no quick fixes here. The challenges we’re seeing today are the result of years, if not decades, of gaps in mental health support, addiction treatment, and housing that were exasperated by the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean we’re powerless to respond.

What it does mean is that we need to be pragmatic. We need to stay focused on solutions. And we need to work collaboratively across all orders of government. I am working hard to focus on day-to-day issues while still moving policy and systemic changes to prevent further community members from falling into homelessness.

Public safety is not just about enforcement - it’s about prevention, compassion, and building systems that actually work for people.

If we keep that purpose at the centre of our approach, I believe we can make meaningful progress toward being a city that is not only safer, but also more resilient, compassionate, and connected.

As progress is being made, I will continue to update this page with more information.

As always, I appreciate hearing from residents, businesses, and community partners. These conversations help guide the work we do every day.

Sincerely,
Nathaniel Schmidt
City of Calgary Ward 8 Councillor 
Calgary.ca/Ward8