Edmonton police, social agencies learn arena district lessons from Toronto

In the shadow of Edmonton's largest construction project are hundreds of homeless people.

It's a reality that prompted representatives of social agenciesworking with the homeless and police to take a trip together to Toronto, to learn how that city's arena district co-exists withpeople who call the streets home.

Their takeaway?

A good relationship is essential between police, the city and agencies that help the homeless.

"The focus of the trip was just to find out best practices," explained Edmonton acting police Insp.Sid Kingma.

"The police members, the shelter people and the city of Edmonton people the relationship between all of us really benefited from that trip."

Toronto not centre of universe

"One thing we learned is Toronto isn't the centre of the universe," said Boyle Street Community Services executive directorJulian Daly,one of 20 people who went on the trip.

"We're doing a lot of things they do there," he said.

Some of the issues facing Toronto's downtown entertainment district are expected to play out here; for example, panhandling outside hockey games and confrontations between sports fans and homeless people.

Toronto's arena district is a littledifferent from Edmonton's. Toronto has two big arenas in its downtownentertainmentarea, but itshomeless shelters are not clustered in the area, as they are in Edmonton.

Daly said he learned from the Toronto visit there are very few problems between the homeless and those who attendbig events there.

But when there are problems, one officer told him the homeless are often the victims.

"The biggest policing challenge in Toronto in terms of street-involved people and homeless people are young men coming out after a game intoxicated and thinking it's a bit of a sport or a laugh to find a homeless person and beat them up or attack them," said Daly.

Kingma wasn't part of the conversation on attacks on homeless people in Toronto. But hesaid Edmonton police will work to prevent any violence in the arena district.

"If something like that were to happen here, if there is any sort of allegation of criminality, that would be investigated on a case by case basis," he said.

To beef up police presence in downtown Edmonton, specifically around the arena, 40 new officers will be hired.

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"You'll end up seeing more policemen on foot, segways and bikes," said Kingma, adding it's hoped the"bigger social presence" for officers will make itmore accessible for anaverage person to walk up and talk topolice.

Oilers want to be a good neighbour

No one from the Oilers Entertainment Group was on the Toronto trip. Butspokesperson Tim Shipton said the Oilers are working with the city, police and inner-city agencies to come up with a plan on urban social issues downtown.

Shipton said the Oilers want to be a good neighbour at a time when downtown is booming.

Edmonton's new Rogers Place arena, nestled within the 25-acre Ice District, is expected to open in time for the 2016/2017 NHL season.

That leavestime tokeep developingthe relationships between the Oilers, the city, police and homeless people before the full opening of the district, which spans between101st Street to 104th Street and103rd Avenue to 106th Avenue.

"We have the street diversion work, we have the 24/7 work done by Reach Edmonton," said Daly, alluding to the council that strives to make Edmonton safer throughcrime prevention initiatives.

Daly said he thinks overall,Edmonton is on the right track with its programming.

"We really want to continue to build on that because Toronto reminded us how well that works. We want to make sure that's really in place and strong for when the arena opens."

gareth.hampshire@cbc.ca

@cbcgareth