Calgary Herald

Homelessne­ss down but 10-year goal still not met

- STEPHANIE BABYCH sbabych@postmedia.com twitter.com/BabychStep­hanie

Homelessne­ss in Calgary is down, according to this year’s point-intime count.

And according to the Calgary Homeless Foundation CEO, the downward trend is because “people here care about people and we’re going to fix it because it’s the right thing to do,” but she added there’s still work to be done.

The count showed a decrease of 19 per cent in homelessne­ss since the first count in 2008. However, when the growth of Calgary is also taken into account, it shows a 32 per cent reduction per capita.

“This kind of success is happening because of who Calgary is and the type of bold leaders we have,” said Diana Krecsy, president and CEO of Calgary Homeless Foundation.

Calgary began a decade-long plan to end homelessne­ss by 2018 which was not met when January rolled around this year. While a 32 per cent reduction per capita looks good, it certainly isn’t as good as 100 per cent. Krecsy said this had a lot to do with the lack of affordable housing available in Calgary back in 2008.

“In 10 years, there’s been over 550 new units of housing built in this city with a goal of hopefully reaching over 600 by Christmas time ... The recent policy change, that housing is a human right, not a privilege to be earned, helped. Everyone in Alberta has a right to have safe shelter over their head.

“There were lots of things that happened along the way in 10 years, namely a flood, a fire and a housing crisis, yet we still continued to house people. Over 9,300 people have been housed.”

The decrease can be attributed to an organized system of care that connects multiple shelters and charity organizati­ons, more affordable housing and better cooperatio­n between public systems.

The data was collected by volunteers on April 11 in the streets, shelters, correction­al facilities and hospitals of Calgary.

The point-in-time count of homelessne­ss is part of the second national co-ordinated count in Canada and takes about eight months to plan. Seven of the largest cities in Alberta, including Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat and Red Deer, sent out hundreds of trained volunteers to survey the homeless in order to get a better snapshot of Alberta homelessne­ss.

In the 2016 count, Calgary represente­d 60 per cent of Alberta’s homeless population but was only 51 per cent of this year’s count. Krecsy said people come to Calgary because they see a greater chance for opportunit­y.

“One of the consistent answers we get in Calgary is that people come here because they believe it’s an inspiring city and they can raise their families here. We hear, ‘If we’re going to get better and do well, we are going to do that in Calgary.’ ”

In Calgary, 2,911 people in the homeless population were surveyed, which showed:

72 per cent male, 26 per cent female; 20 per cent Indigenous, 80 per cent non-Indigenous; 41 per cent 45 years of age and over; 35 per cent 25-44 years of age; 18 per cent 24 years and younger.

“Our trending is down and that’s a good thing ... But we cannot think we’ve won the war, we haven’t. We’ve won amazing battles but it’s not over yet,” said Krecsy.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada