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Edmonton is spending $8.1 million to temporarily address gaps in services for the homeless such as providing funding for day programming and washroom facilities downtown.
City council on Friday unanimously passed a recommendation to spend $7.5 million on shelter programs and $515,000 for washrooms until Oct. 31. The temporary measures are meant to provide some relief to the city’s homeless issue, which has become worse since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The money is being redirected from the COVID-19 reserve funds.
Mayor Don Iveson and many others around the virtual council table voiced frustration with the current situation and the inaction by the province.
“We are in some kind of a crisis, I don’t know what adjective to put on it, but it is a crisis, and it has been for years,” Iveson said. “We know the answer is housing first. The new analogy might be ‘do we want more vaccines, or do we want more masks’? It feels like today we’re buying millions of more masks, but it is not our job to buy the vaccine, in this case, to buy the cure.”
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He said the federal government provided more than $40 million to construct 200 housing units, however, the province turned down the city’s application for additional units.
“That’s 400 units of housing we could have built this year and COVID construction jobs that we’re leaving by the wayside because of the inaction of the government of Alberta,” Iveson said. “That’s why we’re here and we shouldn’t be.”
The funding will be used to set up a new drop-in space at a city-owned building along 105 Street, which can service roughly 300 people seven days a week for more than 15 hours, Boyle Street Community Services, and the Bissell Centre. All combined, the additional dollars are anticipated to ensure 152 spaces are available on any given day in order to serve nearly 700 people each day.
Normally, day programming is funded through a combination of fundraising and auxiliary businesses such as thrift stores as well as grants from governments and other charitable organizations. These funding sources have been impacted by the pandemic and the province has indicated that it doesn’t have the money to support the spaces in Edmonton, the city said.
The mobile washrooms will be available starting on May 1 and will be placed in up to six locations where temporary shelters are in close proximity to business areas. According to the city, public defecation and urination, especially downtown, has increased after the pandemic forced many public facilities to close or have limited access.
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During the discussion, councillors voiced concerns about the growing frustration among the city’s business community.
Ward 6 Coun. Scott McKeen said he’s spoken with many businesses who want to move out of the downtown core over concerns of safety and issues of cleanliness. He said he hope’s administration will work towards addressing some of these issues.
“It is so frustrating and that this is also happening in the midst of a pandemic,” McKeen said. “I know that we are doing our best but…I think we still have to look for innovative ways to deal with this. We have to move quickly on issues like mental illness, get people who need treatment better treatment.”
Council is expected to get an update on the progress of this initiative in June.
jlabine@postmedia.com
