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Edmonton expects to have enough space this winter to accommodate everyone known to be sleeping outside or already using shelters.
Nearly all of the 1,727 winter shelter beds funded in Edmonton should be open by Nov. 1, city staff told councillors during a meeting Wednesday at city hall. This is an increase from January when about 1,280 shelter spaces were available.
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Homeward Trust’s By Name List counts 1,240 people primarily sleeping outdoors or in emergency shelters as of Sept. 23. However, 3,119 people are experiencing homelessness in the city with 1,741 “provisionally” housed, meaning they are in temporary accommodations or insecure housing at risk of losing their homes.
Deputy city manager Jennifer Flaman called it a “monumental task” to add hundreds more shelter beds, showing “incredible progress” on the part of the Alberta government that is making more funding for shelters permanent than before and collaborating with the city and other organizations
“There will be more total spaces available this winter, and those spaces will be available sooner than last year,” she said. “We are collectively on track to have most of these spaces available at the beginning of November with the remainder to follow shortly after.”
By Wednesday, 1,072 24/7 spaces were open in Edmonton. Up to another 200 permanent spaces for women or Indigenous people, and as many as 450 more general-use temporary winter spaces, are anticipated to be available by the beginning of next month. Up to 200 temporary spots could be made permanent.
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The city is funding another 50 beds at Al Rashid Mosque for extreme cold snaps.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi is glad to see progress from the provincial government and recognition about Edmonton’s comparative lack of spaces to Calgary. Sohi hopes the additional spaces will mean fewer people need to shelter in public spaces.
“I hope that increased shelter capacity will allow us to move people from transit centres, LRT stations, into shelters, and that they don’t have to seek refuge in public places where they’re forced to do so now,” he told reporters Wednesday.
Edmontonians can seek respite from the cold in city facilities like libraries and recreation centres when the city activates its emergency winter weather response. But staying in transit centres or LRT stations “is not appropriate for warming or sheltering” even during cold snaps, city spokesperson Karen Zypchyn confirmed with Postmedia.
Instead, there will be two new bus routes this winter shuttling people from transit centres to shelters every night, not only when a cold weather emergency is declared.
Shelter locations haven’t been announced. Coun. Andrew Knack hopes some will be in the west end.
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“We’ve never seen more people living in parks in the west end. There are encampments right now in the forested areas — that was unheard of until really this year or last year,” he told reporters.
Reducing barriers
Coun. Erin Rutherford said the numbers are positive, but how these spaces are used will tell another story.
“If there’s a high utilization we’ll know we’re on the right path,” she said. If it’s low, “knowing people are choosing not to use the shelter spaces, it leads to other questions about what are the barriers,” she told Postmedia.
“The fact that we can have conversations about removing barriers rather than how do we get enough spaces is great to be having instead.”
Some shelter operators are already working to reduce barriers and provide “amnesty totes” to lock up belongings that aren’t allowed and offer special detox spots so people who aren’t sober can still find a place to stay, Flaman said.
Other councillors worried there isn’t enough space for youth, about barriers faced by newcomers, and about a lack of public washrooms.
Only 16 spaces are specifically allocated for youth in Edmonton.
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Won’t meet the need: advocate
Jim Gurnett, spokesperson for Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness), is skeptical the promised spaces will open in time and at full capacity.
While the province funded 450 temporary spaces for the 2022-2023 winter, 150 didn’t open until January.
Even if the promises are kept, it won’t truly solve the problem, Gurnett said.
“This is just so infuriating, that every year, even at the last minute the best they can come up with is nowhere near what is needed,” he said. “What’s being offered is not nearly adequate for what lies ahead.”
Gurnett said the current situation playing out on the city’s streets is because of a failure by higher orders of government with funding social services and housing.
lboothby@postmedia.com
@laurby
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