Edmonton Homeless Problem

Edmonton is facing a significant and escalating homelessness crisis, with the number of people experiencing homelessness reaching unprecedented levels in recent years28.

Scale and Trends

  • Current Numbers: As of September 2024, Homeward Trust reported 4,697 individuals experiencing homelessness in Edmonton. This figure includes people staying in shelters, those sleeping unsheltered, and individuals in provisional accommodations (like couch-surfing or temporary housing) without stable tenancy2. Earlier in January 2024, the count was 3,051, broken down into 1,733 provisionally accommodated, 519 in shelters, and 694 unsheltered (with 105 unknown)6. However, advocates suggest these numbers might underestimate the true scale6. By late 2024, the total number was nearing 5,00078.

  • Significant Increase: The September 2024 figure represents an increase of nearly 2,000 people compared to the previous year28. This number is more than triple the count from pre-pandemic levels8. Between January and June 2024 alone, the number grew by about 40%, from 2,760 to 3,8763.

  • Shelter Capacity vs. Need: There is a substantial gap between the number of people experiencing homelessness (around 5,000) and the available shelter resources, estimated at about 2,000 spaces7. Hope Mission, a major shelter provider, reported nearly reaching its 1,000-person capacity on a single day in January 20246.

  • Chronic Homelessness: Of the nearly 5,000 individuals counted in late 2024, over 1,200 were considered chronically unsheltered8.

  • Demographics: Among the sheltered and unsheltered population counted in 2024 (excluding provisionally accommodated), nearly half identified as Indigenous, 42% were women, and 16% were 24 years old or younger1.

Contributing Factors

  • Economic Pressures: Inflation, rising rents, tightening vacancy rates, and lack of income are significant factors driving people into homelessness16.

  • Complex Needs: Growing complexity of health needs, including mental health concerns and issues related to contaminated street drugs, increases the need for supportive housing with wrap-around services1.

  • Housing Shortage: An insufficient supply of affordable and supportive housing prevents people from exiting homelessness1. Homeward Trust estimates a need for an additional 1,400 to 1,700 supportive housing units by 203014.

  • Systemic Issues: Fragmented services have historically hindered effective support5. Additionally, neighboring municipalities lacking their own services may contribute to more people seeking help in Edmonton8.

Encampments and Response

  • Increased Encampments: Complaints about homeless encampments surged from 9,000 in 2022 to over 17,000 in 20235. Some encampments grew large and were associated with criminal activity57.

  • Removal Policy: The city and police significantly increased encampment removals. Over 2,600 were dismantled in the first half of 2024, double the same period in 20233. By the end of November 2024, almost 9,500 encampments had been shut down that year, a 42% increase from 20237. This policy has led to fewer visible encampments8. Over 1.6 million kilograms (3.5 million pounds) of waste were removed from these sites in 20247.

  • Navigation Centre: Launched in January 2024, the Navigation Centre aims to consolidate services (housing, income, addiction support) and provide a central point for individuals removed from encampments57. This initiative, involving provincial ministries, Edmonton Police Service (EPS), and First Nations representatives, reportedly increased the success rate of connecting people to services from 1% (pre-Centre) to 40%5.

City Strategy and Investment

  • Homelessness and Housing Services Plan: Edmonton has an updated plan (2024) focused on reducing inflow into homelessness, increasing housing outcomes for the unsheltered, and improving emergency responses14. This follows an original 10-year plan launched in 20094.

  • Increased Spending: City spending on homelessness-related activities increased by roughly 23% from $73.6 million in 2022 to $91.4 million in 20231.

  • Housing Development: Since 2017, the city and partners have developed 644 supportive housing units4. Efforts continue with new shelters opening (e.g., Hope Mission West End) and construction of facilities like Boyle Street’s King Thunderbird Centre8.

  • Intergovernmental Cooperation: A cost-sharing agreement between the federal and provincial governments for homelessness interventions was reached in October 20248. The provincial government was also involved in establishing the Navigation Centre5.

Citations:

  1. https://www.edmonton.ca/sites/default/files/public-files/assets/PDF/Homelessness-Housing-Services-Plan.pdf
  2. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/homelessness-count-1.7368114
  3. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/homeless-encampment-removals-have-doubled-in-edmonton-critics-say-the-situation-is-no-better-1.7294949
  4. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-homelessness-strategy-10-year-plan-1.7210726
  5. https://www.blueline.ca/navigating-homelessness-in-edmonton-a-new-strategy-unfolds-with-a-systems-approach/
  6. https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/matching-people-in-need-with-shelter-a-breakdown-of-the-number-of-spaces-in-edmonton-the-homeless-population-and-city-shelter-policy
  7. https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2024/12/31/edmonton-removed-9000-homeless-encampments-in-2024-three-year-high/
  8. https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/keith-gerein-homelessness-edmonton-ucp
  9. https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/number-of-people-living-unhoused-in-edmonton-up-47-in-2024-data/
  10. https://homelesshub.ca/community_profile/edmonton/
  11. https://www.alberta.ca/homelessness-response
  12. https://informalberta.ca/public/service/serviceProfileStyled.do?serviceQueryId=1081165
  13. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-took-down-9-500-homeless-camps-last-year-40-more-than-in-2023-1.7427662
  14. https://www.edmonton.ca/sites/default/files/public-files/assets/PDF/Emergency-Shelter-Best-Practices-Guide-2024.pdf
  15. https://www.theprogressreport.ca/edmonton_has_spent_225k_fencing_off_former_encampment_sites_in_the_first_nine_months_of_2024
  16. https://homewardtrust.ca/data-analytics-reporting/
  17. https://edmontonsocialplanning.ca/2024/01/19/fact-sheet-encampments-in-edmonton/
  18. https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2025/03/11/ottawa-alberta-70-million-homelessness-response/
  19. https://homewardtrust.ca/edmontons-plan-to-end-homelessness/
  20. https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/homeward-trust-edmonton-homeless-population

Answer from Perplexity: pplx.ai/share

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Polarization

Like Bison, humans form groups to maximize the chances of survival and propagation. As do bacteria and other life forms. In most species these bonds are largely instinctive, but in humans there is a conscious intellectual element as well, because of the nature of our brains. In a peaceful and ordered society this tendency is channelled into team sports, among other things and is generally considered to be positive. In a troubled society, the energy goes into supporting opposing political factions with potential for actual violence as we have witnessed in the US lately. When things turn really nasty, the opposing group is de-humanized and made ready for slaughter in a confrontational war, or by way of 'ethnic cleansing'. In the last few years we have been slowly slipping down this greasy totem pole, driven by an accelerating pace of wealth finding its way into fewer and fewer hands, at the expense of people at large, with very predictable results. Because it has happened so many...
Read more

Opposing viewpoints

How can rational people, observing a phenomenon, 'see' something very different from each other? Simply because what you see depends on your viewpoint, physically, and your point of view, or mindset. This explains the emergence of radically different opinions on the nature of what we have labelled Covid 19. On one side are those that see this virus as being similar to the one that created the 1918 flu pandemic, and should be dealt with as such. On the other side are those that see it as a weapon of fear without serious physical consequences and which should be ignored in order to preserve society as we know it. The people that are in direct contact with the virus daily and see it killing vulnerable individuals on a routine basis are generally in the first group. A good number of those that are not in direct contact, fall into the second category, as they observe empty parking lots and little obvious activity outside community hospitals (in contrast to those that work inside th...
Read more

Lords of the Mindscape

People around the world are now celebrating Easter, the spring festival, when life emerges, once again from the fertile Earth. In Christianity this is symbolized by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ascent into heaven, to once again, sit by his father's side. Ramadan in the Muslim tradition is tied to the phases of the moon, just like easter, and related to the beginning of the intense heat that begins around this time in Arabic countries and the importance of water. Having lived in Baghdad, Iraq during the summer of 1961, I can speak to that one! Passover in Judaism is likewise related to the moon and the escape of the Israelites from Egypt. What these traditions have in common is that they impose rules, lots of them, on populations that have adopted the beliefs associated with each of them. And then there are the enforcers, Lords of the Mindscape, who ensure that the rules are followed. They have special dispensations from God to do this and they are generally well fed and...
Read more