CBBarnett
Senior Member
By tolerance, I mean that we shouldn't take the mere presence of poor and/or mentally ill people on the streets as a problem in and of itself. The people who hang out in front of the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre (should) have just as much right to be there as the yuppies who hang out in front of the Simmons building one block down. If there is a public safety or public health risk, that's another issue. But my sense is that when the average person says "homelessness is becoming a problem", they don't mean that rents are too high or that our health care facilities are inadequate; they mean that they don't want to be in the presence of homeless people.
I agree with this, as I suspect most seem to on here based on the comments. My original comment related to my perceived increase in violent, erratic and aggressive behaviour in summer time with a new set of user in the Victoria Park area, while many of the regular winter population of homeless seems to disappear/become less visible. People that experience homelessness have every right to all the spaces in the area, the issue is around violent and aggressive stuff at Vic Park station and stretching through to Sheldon Chumir, that has become fairly regular. This was far less prevalent in the winter months (from my perception at least, I don't know if data supports it).