City updating its plan to end homelessness

A strategy to end homelessness will require long-term housing with 24-hour care for the chronically homeless in neighbourhoods across Edmonton, said city officials launching a new public survey Monday.

The city is updating the strategy in anticipation of new capital dollars from the federal and provincial governments. The survey at EndHomelessnessYEG.ca is available until April 13.

Mayor Don Iveson said he’s hoping to hear an openness to hosting more supportive housing from more communities, since the city now recognizes it’s not healthy to concentrate these facilities in the core.

They’ve also learned through the first eight years of the Plan to End Homelessness that some people living with trauma, mental health illnesses and/or addictions will need a higher level of long-term support to remain in a home.

But the alternative — leaving them to sleep rough in the river valley or on the streets — is less compassionate and more expensive, Iveson said.

“We are spending ourselves into a huge hole chasing homeless people between the justice system and the health-care system.”

Iveson said when the 10-year plan to end homelessness was passed eight years ago, the provincial and federal governments were spending about $100 million a year on various types of affordable housing. That investment dried up, and is one of the main reasons Edmonton did not meet its goal, he said.

“It’s not for lack of trying from Homeward Trust,” he said, crediting the local body in charge of coordinating the work.

The province still supported operations during that time, Iveson said. He’s hoping to see capital dollars ramp up in Thursday’s provincial budget.

Iveson asked for $21 million a year for 10 years for housing geared to the chronically homeless between the federal and provincial governments. That will require the city to help find and develop community support around specific locations.

Susan McGee, head of Homeward Trust, said they’ve made significant progress housing people who were homeless in scattered sites across Edmonton, with 80 per cent staying in those homes for at least a year.

Homeless counts suggest a roughly 40 per cent drop between 2008 and 2016, although economic conditions also changed.

The count was at 1,700 last year. About 1,000 people use the shelters on a given night.

We are spending ourselves into a huge hole chasing homeless people between the justice system and the health-care system.

LARRY WONG Edmonton recognizes that it’s not healthy to concentrate all its facilities that help the homeless, such as Hope Mission, in the downtown core.