Ending Homelessness in Edmonton and Alberta (January 2024)
On January 2nd I asked Edmontonians a question on social media, “How do we make Edmonton better?” This followed a question on January 1st where I asked, “What do you love about Edmonton?” If you have a chance to review those posts on my social media platforms, I encourage you to do so as it provides great insight into many different areas. The purpose of today’s post is to focus on the most common response for how to make Edmonton better: addressing homelessness.
As I do with every post on this topic, it is important to clearly state that housing, shelter operations, and mental health/addictions support are provincial jurisdiction.
I don’t share that information to point fingers, I share it to make sure everyone is starting from the same place as there are certain things that I will cover in this post that we would love to address, but we don’t have the legal authority to do so. I also want to note that the current housing crisis in Edmonton is not unique to Edmonton. It’s happening in Calgary and even in smaller cities across Alberta. While there are some unique considerations in Edmonton, it’s a province-wide challenge that needs a province-wide solution.
Since I have written many other posts on this topic, you can use the links below to get fully caught up before reading the rest of this post. This includes a post from July 2023 which details all of the City investment being made into building affordable and 24/7 supportive housing. For more information about how housing saves lives, you can read this post from March 2023. Finally, if you want to learn more about what the provincial government has stated they were going to do under Premier Kenney and how housing for those experiencing homelessness saves us all money and creates safer communities, you can read this post from November 2022.
Permanent Solutions: 24/7 Supportive Housing and Recovery Centres
A supportive housing development in Westmount.
As you will read in the November 2022 post, there was positive action from Premier Kenney and upon the release of their report from October 1st, 2022, I was feeling hopeful we were going to see meaningful change that focused more on proactive solutions. Unfortunately, with the exception of the addition of more shelter spaces in late 2023, there hasn’t been any significant action on the more long-term solutions needed to address the crisis we are in.
On January 15th, a report will be coming to our Community and Public Services Committee. This report is an update to the affordable housing strategy. As mentioned above, while housing isn’t our jurisdiction, we aren’t sitting back waiting for action. We want to help the other orders of government fix this crisis. To the federal government’s credit, we have seen quite a significant investment in building more supportive housing but again, this is a crisis that requires all three orders of government.
In the report, it clearly states that:
“In order to address the homelessness crisis in our city, a range of between 1,400-1,700 supportive housing units with on-site supports and services for people currently experiencing homelessness is needed in the next 4 to 5 years.”
Having a clear range of the units needed is important as then it’s easy to track progress. The 1,400-1,700 number is encouraging because it’s achievable with the proper investment. With the municipal and federal government already providing substantial funding, all we need now is for the provincial government to use a fraction of their projected $5.5 billion surplus to end homelessness.
Here are some important numbers that prove that point:
Between 2019 and 2022, the City’s $133 million investment leveraged approximately $564 million, including $310 million from other orders of government and $117 million in equity from housing providers to deliver 2,807 units (644 supportive housing units).
Looking solely at the supportive housing units, which are built for those with the highest need (ex: struggling with both mental health and addictions), this is something that can easily be addressed with provincial funding. To be clear, a fraction of the provincial surplus would not only end homelessness in Edmonton, it would end it across Alberta. If there is political will from the provincial government, almost every person in this province could have a home within a few years. This is a very achievable goal.
The reason I focus on using the projected provincial surplus, or part of the more than $11 billion dollar provincial surplus from last year is that every dollar the City of Edmonton puts into this area is money that we aren’t using on infrastructure or services that are within City jurisdiction. Essentially, you are being double taxed which is never a good thing but it’s particularly challenging in the current economic situation.
Using over $250 million dollars from 2019-2026 is money that could have been used for rec centres, libraries, police stations, fire halls, parks, roads, bridges, rehabilitating older municipal buildings, etc. When the order of government that has jurisdiction isn’t using their available financial resources, we are left in the situation to either do nothing, which isn’t a reasonable option since people are literally dying on the streets, or take away critical funding for municipal priorities. Neither of those options make sense when we live in a province with such wealth.
What we need now is a clear action plan of how and when those 1,400-1,700 units will be built. We are ready and willing to support the provincial government and we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The October 1st, 2022 report sets the framework, now they need to put that framework into action.
Interim Solutions: Minimum Shelter Standards
Assuming a clear action plan is implemented by the provincial government, we still have a short-term issue that needs to be addressed: the operations of shelters in Edmonton and across Alberta. A previous report showed that with the exception of food service which must comply with AHS procedures, all other areas of operations (ex: sleeping accommodations, operating hours, programs and supports, etc.) are up to the shelter provider. In fact, even the evaluation of the shelters was not standardized.
Back on October 1st, 2022, it was recognized by Premier Kenney that shelter standards needed to be updated. That recognition was a direct result of work done by the City of Edmonton in partnership with shelter operators. It was former Councillor Nickel who asked for the City to come up with a set of minimum standards that would ensure the safety and security of everyone using a shelter while also working to connect people experiencing homelessness into more permanent solutions. You can read the standards on this website. Although the City of Edmonton worked to create these, we cannot mandate them. Any change in standards is within the legal authority of the provincial government but we felt that by creating new standards, they would have a good place to start.
With a clear recognition that new standards are needed provincially, I was hopeful that we would see them implemented quickly and that the necessary funding needed for shelter operators to increase their standards would be provided soon after the release of the report on October 1st, 2022. To date, it is unclear what the new standards are, or even if they have been updated. Minister Nixon has stated that all shelters are operating to provincial minimum standards but when asked what the actual standards are, they have not provided a response.
In fact, I even had a member of the Minister’s staff respond to a thread on Twitter (X) where I again asked what the current minimum standards are, where they are posted, when they were (or will be) implemented, if there has been a funding increase to shelter operators to meet those standards, and how they are measuring performance. To date, I have not received a response. The question was even asked in the Legislature during Question Period and a response has not been provided.
I don’t think anyone is expecting perfection. What I think most Edmontonians expect is clear communication. Right now we are in a crisis. The number of encampments that we have across Edmonton is unlike anything we have ever seen before. While there are technically enough shelter spaces, we are still hearing from many experiencing homelessness that they don’t feel safe in those spaces. Here’s an article from December explaining why some youth choose to live in an encampment instead of using shelters.
This is tragic and it shouldn’t be happening. We know what the minimum standards should be. The province could mandate these standards today and they could provide the necessary funding to the shelter operators to ensure they are meeting those standards. The sad thing is that it would be cheaper to do that than to continue to stick with the status quo. The cost to the healthcare system and justice system is far more than providing people with safe spaces to go.
Summary
The issue of homelessness might seem complex but it’s not. I regularly have people share videos or articles with me about how Finland has ended homelessness. They use a model called “Housing First”. The great news is that is the approach used here in Edmonton as well. The only thing that is different from what is happening in Alberta compared to Finland is that not enough units are being built. We know that when people have the units, there are better health, safety, and financial outcomes. We have the data to prove it from the supportive housing units that have been built so we don’t have the debate if it works, we know it does.
We cannot keep waiting. We need action now as we are in the most severe crisis we’ve ever seen. The good news is that it’s easy to solve so let’s get to work and make it happen.
