Opinion: Calgary at two million begins with one, designed for all

By Kat Hedges

Two million begins with one. One person stepping onto a street that feels safe, one neighbour catching a bus that arrives on time, one student wheeling into a classroom.

Calgary isn’t just growing in numbers; we are growing in who we choose to include. If we design for one, we must design for all.

Calgarians have told me stories about how small, preventable gaps in our systems cascade into life-altering crises. Stories of medication errors by well-meaning care staff triggering a mental-health episode. Stories where first responders arrive with goodwill but lack training to safely support someone in psychiatric distress who uses a wheelchair. Stories of systems that stabilize people medically, only to bar them from returning to supportive housing because a temporary mental-health crisis falls outside of a housing provider’s mandate.

When accessible housing is unattainable, hospital beds become substitutes for homes. Some Calgarians fall into homelessness.

Power wheelchair users with vision impairments tell stories of being deemed “too high-risk” to house, with no effort made to provide adaptive supports. Families face separation in the wake of injury or illness due to a severe lack of accessible, affordable, family-oriented housing.

Read more: https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-calgary-at-two-million-begins-with-one-designed-for-all