As the 21st Century unfolds, advances continue on many fronts. The Calgary-based Canada West Foundation (CWF) seems determined to ride this wave of improvement into communities across Canada. In the CWF's latest Core Challenges Initiative series, policy researchers seek practical solutions for many of the 19th and 20th Century urban social ills long considered inevitable costs of urban growth and something that society must be resigned to.

Since 1970, CWF has conducted non-partisan accessible public policy research and public education with an ultimate goal of improving public policy to benefit all areas of Canada.

The recently-released Hard Times: A Portrait of Street Level Social Problems in Western Canada, the first in this six-report series, serves as an inventory of urban social issues and reinforces the CWF mission "to contribute to building a strong West in a strong Canada." The report answers two key questions:

1. What street-level social problems does each core area currently face?

2. What are the implications of these problems for cities and what are the risks if they are not addressed?

Six case studies illustrate the range of contributing factors and outcomes influenced by local complexities when considering urban-core, street-level social problems, such as homelessness, prostitution, gangs and drug activity. The urban centres selected for close-up analysis -- the Greater Vancouver Region, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg -- reflect the range of regional, economic and population differences seen in cities across the country.

Hard Times demonstrates that social issues vary in cause, visibility, form and impact, so that one-solution-fits-all approaches are not the answer in any city. Since no two urban areas (or neighbourhoods for that matter) are the same, social and economic pressures faced by residents materialize differently and, therefore, require tailored policy and locally-integrated front-line solutions. Street-level social problems are reported to be more evident in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, while in Regina, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg, many social problems "take place behind closed doors." For instance, absolute homelessness, which involves either living outdoors or relying on social agencies for shelter, presents the greatest challenge in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton. In Regina, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg, hidden homelessness, inadequate housing and living at risk of homelessness are more significant issues than living on the street.

You may believe you are well-insulated from the increase in street-level problems related to population growth and neighbourhood intensification, but in reality few escape. The 311 front-line workers, experts and community leaders interviewed in Hard Times are familiar with how broadly the problems they address impact on residents, organizations, neighbourhoods and on cities themselves as: social fragmentation, the growing social divide, threats to perceived and actual public safety, poor health outcomes, higher long-term service costs, business loss, reduced investment, negative city image, poverty, racism and economic dislocation.

The inventory of social ills discussed in Hard Times frames the next research phase which will continue to focus on the 6 western centres in ways that can be extrapolated into other urban areas.

"This report is a context piece for understanding the situation," said Robert Roach, Director of Research, explaining how Hard Times may have impact. "People write stories. People talk about this community and that, and also take action at the community level. This information snakes out there. It is hard to track, but people change their minds, make a difference, take a different tack. It is not always easy to measure the effect of having [new] ideas and different perspectives, but it is always useful."

CWF research is intended to compliment surveys and investigation carried out by other groups, and to provide education and awareness raising support for community-based organizations.

"It is valuable to have objective research out there," said Roach. "There is a lot that an individual can do, a business can do, a community can do, but a research institute like Canada West Foundation can pull information together and present it in a different way. We are hopeful that people will see social problems in a different way. There is a tendency to see social problems in a very negative light—as criminal issues only."

Roach explains that the Western Cities Project, which begun about 10 years ago, pursues urban issues on many levels with an admitted bias.

"We want cities to be high-quality life -- pretty much motherhood kind of stuff -- and great places to live and that is a big goal in the background," said Roach. "The goal within this intent is a desire to utilize public policy to make people's lives better....Part of this is we don't just want to see this as 'people as problems,' but as needs to resolve."

Roach encourages organizations, no matter how small, to contact the Foundation and share their local answers to social problems plaguing their neighbourhoods. These and other solutions will be incorporated into the research.

"We are always interested [in] emails and phone calls from people who have good ideas and have been working on these issues," said Roach, explaining that rants and general comments are not relevant to their current research, which will also extend beyond Canada's borders. "If there are people out there who have been working on addressing these issues, we'd love to hear from them ... . We want to identify the programs and actions that seem to be working."

Hard Times researchers concluded: "Do we fix broken windows or broken lives? The answer is that we must do both. There is room for public policy to accommodate both approaches."

Published: September 18, 2007

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