Homeless face high rate of transit violations: report

Over half of all transit tickets issued in Edmonton in 2018 were given to people with no fixed address or who did not provide an address, according to newly released statistics.

Student Legal Services of Edmonton published a report on data received through a Freedom of Information request revealing that Edmonton Transit Service officers issued 5,416 tickets to people with no fixed address or who did not provide an address in 2018 — about 56 per cent of all transit tickets issued.

That includes 2,486 tickets for fare evasion and 2,102 tickets for trespassing. In total, the tickets add up to about $1.4 million in fines.

“We were noticing at our outreaches at different shelters a lot of people that had problems with bylaw tickets and those tickets causing serious obstacles in their lives,” said Chris Wiebe, SLS legal education and reform project co-ordinator.

“I think these numbers suggest that these bylaws have a significant effect on keeping people in poverty.”

The City of Edmonton says these numbers don’t accurately represent tickets given to people with no fixed address because they include people who did not provide their address.

The city said in 2018, 376 fare-evasion tickets were issued to people with no fixed address, about 6.4 per cent of all fare-evasion tickets given out — and they say that they can’t assume all people who reported having no fixed address are homeless.

Still, the numbers indicate that those with no fixed address are issued an amount of fare-evasion tickets disproportionate to the population of those in the city experiencing homelessness.

“Peace officers issue tickets based on a variety of factors including fare evasion rates, history of transit offences, severity of offence and as a deterrence to repeating the behaviour,” wrote city spokesman Mark Torjusen in an emailed statement.

“For those experiencing homelessness, there are a variety of avenues that the transit peace officers use to assist them.

“That can include connecting or transporting them to social agencies and shelters, or for medical aid.”

Ward 5 Coun. Sarah Hamilton worries about the effect on city resources of delivering this many tickets.

“I think a pretty fair concern is, are we enforcing the law or are we putting more people into the justice system?” Hamilton said.

“And I think that, given the challenges this city has in front of it, putting more people into the justice system for bylaw infractions — because that’s what it comes down to — is a concern.”

Hamilton says she’s cautious to reach any conclusions until city council hears more about the topic of transit fines early next year.

Last week, council voted to instruct city administration to conduct a review on Edmonton’s transportation fines and potential options for changing the way fines are levied or paid.

The city says that the number of fare-evasion fines issued to people with no fixed address has dropped 5.2 per cent from 2018 to 2019.

“This is due to the educational and diversional approaches taken by peace officers to assist our citizens experiencing homelessness,” wrote Torjusen.