Visitors to the medical clinic at The Alex Community Health Centre are met with the quote, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in,” painted prominently on the wall. The line, paraphrased from Leonard Cohen’s 1992 song, Anthem, has become a common adage for anyone struggling with hardship.
In this bright and friendly doctor’s office, it carries a particular resonance. The patients who walk these halls may be experiencing homelessness, acute mental health and addiction issues, or a general lack of belonging in a constantly growing city. This place provides the light to lead them towards health, dignity and a sense of purpose.
The organization’s name might be familiar from various fundraising initiatives boasting the centre’s bold orange logo. The Community Health Centre, at 2840 2 Ave. S.E, adjacent Youth Health Centre, and other facilities under The Alex umbrella (including The Alex Community Food Centre, Youth Health Bus and some other outreach services) are often embraced by local philanthropists.
The Alex is a physical place, but it’s also a movement dedicated to offering a revolutionary, though remarkably sensible, model of multi-disciplinary health care. The Alex specializes in dignity-centred, judgment-free medical care. Calgarians experiencing poverty, mental or physical health challenges, addiction or social isolation can access integrated housing, health care and social services.
In addition to the medical centre, its gleaming 61,000-square-foot building is home to housing services, a community kitchen, an Indigenous cultural space, a youth clinic, a rapid-access addiction clinic, and other community and healthcare programming.
While vulnerable people can technically access family doctors and health care like other Calgarians, barriers such as a lack of identification, fear of stigmatization, and a general distrust of those in positions of authority can keep The Alex’s patients away from traditional services. Putting everything under one roof gives clients a better chance of following through on appointments, prescriptions and preventative treatment. “It is exceptionally difficult to have to navigate Calgary’s system when you’ve got all your belongings in a backpack or a shopping cart,” says CEO Joy Bowen-Eyre. “You’re trying to stay awake, to be able to keep your belongings and yourself safe, to find shelter every night and food every day. It’s exhausting. Walking into a hospital because you need help is probably the last thing you’re going to do.”
The Alex started in 1973 at the Alexandra Community Centre in Inglewood when a doctor, a nurse and a social worker saw the potential to combine medical care and social work in a public clinic. Through fundraising and government support, the organization expanded with new programming, and the first version of a centralized Community Health Centre, opened in the city’s core on Centre Street in 2006. Operations quickly spread to additional buildings.
In 2017, The Alex moved into its new integrated location, strategically positioned near the Franklin LRT station. There are other community health-care centres in Canada taking a similar approach, but none are as large as The Alex.
Using both social and medical services to encourage people to come through the doors is part of what makes The Alex unique compared to other multi-disciplinary health centres. For many patients, the first access point is a meal at the Community Health Centre’s community kitchen, spurred by the lure of a judgement-free breakfast or lunch and a hot cup of coffee. From there, visitors might feel comfortable enough making an appointment with a family doctor, connecting with the housing team or participating in a cultural activity.
The medical clinic will treat any low-income Calgarian who does not have a family doctor, as well as Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ Calgarians of all income levels, by appointment or walk-in — it operates like any family doctor’s office, rather than an urgent-care centre or hospital.
“All of our clients have plenty of strengths and skills,” says Dr. Erik Singendonk, the medical director and an active physician at the Community Health Centre. “They’ve lived through really challenging things. They just don’t know how to use those strengths or skills to solve the problems in front of them. They’re asking for help, and they’re going to apply themselves the best they can.”
Singendonk has worked with The Alex since 2014, and that dedication to the organization is not unusual amongst staff. Bowen-Eyre says part of what makes The Alex successful is a high level of employee retention. Clients recognize friendly faces when they come in, but it also speaks to the entire team’s belief in The Alex’s mission.
“When you look at the fact that one in five Canadians don’t have access to a primary care doctor, we’ve got 64 doctors choosing to work for us, I think we’re doing something right,” Bowen-Eyre says.
It’s not just the employees who buy into The Alex’s mission. The organization has several partners throughout the city, such as the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District, all of which are keenly interested in the health of our most vulnerable citizens.
For example, knowing not everyone in need will come into the Community Health Centre, The Alex sends family doctors and psychiatrists into the Calgary Drop-In Centre for an outreach medical clinic to support the complex needs of shelter residents.
“If these really high-needs people were not being supported by The Alex in the way that they are, it would have a dramatic impact on visible homelessness, probably an impact on social disorder, and most importantly, people would not be served in the way that they need or deserve,” says Drop-in Centre CEO Sandra Clarkson. “Homelessness isn’t just about housing. It’s also interconnected with health. The more we look at a person holistically, the better outcomes we can hope for those individuals.”
Government is on board, too. Approximately 56 per cent of The Alex’s $36 million revenue comes from the Government of Alberta. Additional philanthropic fundraising augments government funding for services, including additional mental health supports, the community kitchen and mobile health programs.
Despite controversy surrounding the new provincial health-care restructuring, Bowen-Eyre says that some of the reforms have already had a positive impact on The Alex. In late 2024, The Alex received a substantial grant from Primary Care Alberta, recognizing the benefit of attaching vulnerable people to primary care providers, which can potentially reduce expensive emergency room visits.
Municipal politicians also recognize how The Alex is improving the health of people living on the streets, which contributes to overall safety within the city.
“The Alex Community Health Centre is filling a critical gap in our city by bringing physical health, mental health, and social supports together under one roof, without barriers, judgment, or red tape,” says Mayor Jeromy Farkas in an emailed comment. “For Calgarians facing complex challenges, this integrated, one-stop model isn’t just innovative, it’s essential. When we invest in care that meets people where they are, we don’t just improve individual outcomes, we build a healthier, more resilient community for everyone.”
That sentiment hasn’t been confined to Alberta. After connecting with Australian health-care representatives at a conference in 2024, Bowen-Eyre was approached by Primary Health Networks in New South Wales to consult on adopting a community health centre model on a wider scale. While the method is currently only being applied to vulnerable populations here in Alberta, there’s no telling what our province could look like if everyone living here could access a similar philosophy of community care.
“Every Albertan should have the kind of health care that we have here at The Alex,” Bowen-Eyre says.
“But if that’s not possible, let’s continue to do it for the vulnerable population because they’re the ones who have the most difficulty in terms of their barriers and navigation.”
The Alex by the numbers (annually)
More than 104,000 overall visits to health or social programs
More than 26,000 visits to the Youth Health Centre (both social and medical)
More than 11,000 Senior Health Centre visits
More than 6,000 encounters by the Street Team