> Federal government tackles chronic homelessness,

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals are aiming to halve the number of the hardest-to-help homeless and experts say it’s a move that may be key to ending homelessness in the country.

The upcoming national housing strategy looks to cut by 50 per cent the number of “chronic” homeless — many of whom won’t go to shelters and may be harder to reach through traditional support systems — and “episodic” homeless, those who find themselves on the street repeatedly.

Government estimates peg the number of chronic and episodic homeless at 25,000, meaning the Liberals expect that 11 years from now, federal spending will have cut that number to 12,500.

The Liberals’ second budget in March showed that they wanted to get money directly to cities and service providers without having to deal with provinces.

Some of those measures were clear, such as giving the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., more money to dole out directly to local governments. Others were less obvious, including a promise to maintain $4 billion in funding agreements to housing providers without detailing how the money would be spent.

“It’s pretty clear that the government is investing money differently,” said Tim Richter, president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.

“If they’re setting the kind of ambitious goals that they’re setting, they have to be more directed, more targeted, and they’re going to have to be creative and make their dollars really stretch.”

As for the cut to chronic and episodic homelessness, Richter thought the estimated impact was pretty conservative: “With the money that they’re investing, we could achieve a lot more.”