Declaring a Housing Emergency (January 2024)
On January 17th, 2024, City Council declared a Housing and Houselessness Emergency. For those who have been reading my blogs on housing over the years, including my blog from earlier this month, please start with that before going through this post. Since housing, shelter operations, and mental health/addictions support are all provincial jurisdiction, why declare this housing emergency? This post will detail why I supported that declaration.
If you have read my previous blogs, you know that for the last few years, I’ve been calling this a housing crisis. I don’t recall if I have specifically used the term emergency but I viewed the two words as interchangeable over the past few years because prior to 2019, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton was going down and since 2019, the total number of people experiencing homelessness has doubled.
In 2023, 301 people lost their lives as a result of homelessness.
That number should be very concerning and to me, it absolutely justifies the use of the term emergency. To put that into perspective, 101 people in Edmonton lost their lives as a result of homelessness. 101 people is already a tragic number but to see that number increase by another 200 people is devastating and in my mind, it absolutely makes that an emergency.
I might feel differently if there was a clear plan to address this but unfortunately, I don’t see one yet. The City has our own affordable housing strategy which has produced positive results: “Played a direct role in increasing affordable housing supply through City’s first Affordable Housing Investment Plan (2019 - 2022), which provides limited funding and below-market land sales to affordable housing providers, resulting in City investment of in 2,807 units, surpassing the original 2,500 unit target.” To accomplish that goal, the City leveraged $133 million of funding from 2019-2022 to get another $564 million.
In order to meet the current need, the City of Edmonton needs 1,400-1,700 units of 24/7 supportive housing and recovery beds. We have approved a similar amount of funding for 2023-2026 but that won’t be enough. 644 units of the 2.807 units from 2019-2022 were 24/7 supportive housing so it’s fair to assume we could see a similar number built by 2026. That would leave us approximately 1,000 units short of what is needed in Edmonton. Currently, there is no clear plan from the provincial or federal government to fill that need. That is another reason I think it’s important to call this an emergency.
What the City Needs to Do
While I think it’s important to call this what it is, it’s also fair to then ask what additional actions can the City of Edmonton take to help because as noted by my colleague Councillor Aaron Paquette, there is significant risk that by declaring this an emergency, we create a situation where people think this is a situation that the City of Edmonton can solve on its own and that is not the case at all.
Although City Council has done far more than ever before starting back in 2019, I think there are some additional actions we can take. The first action is to ensure the City land we have is ready and as my colleague Councillor Cartmell suggested, ask the school boards to surplus all land they have that they know will not have a school. If the provincial and federal governments come together to provide the necessary investment, we need to make sure that we are ready with City land so we aren’t waiting for these critical units of 24/7 supportive housing.
The other action I think that could help, recognizing that we shouldn’t further increase taxes to fund something that is not our jurisdiction, is to look at other funding sources that don’t require raising taxes. One area I would like to consider is selling some of the City land currently located outside the Henday.
The City of Edmonton owns large amounts of land and while some of that can and must be used for 24/7 supportive housing, we are also competing with private developers in an area that is not our jurisdiction. The sale of this land would provide immediate funding that could be used to help increase our projected $123 million without requiring an increase in property taxes.
What the City Needs from the Provincial and Federal Governments
From the federal government: more consistent funding. While the federal government did provide a good amount of funding from 2019-2022, it was done very sporadically. That inconsistency makes it harder on the provincial government to follow through on a plan of action because while housing is primarily provincial jurisdiction, the federal government does plan a role in this.
From the provincial government: we need a plan of action. Yes, it would be harder to implement a plan without the federal government providing consistent funding but it’s still absolutely possible and necessary to address this crisis. To be fair, there was a plan released on October 1st, 2022 by former Premier Kenney. As previously shared, it’s great to see the increase in shelter spaces but those are interim solutions and without permanent spaces to go, we will continue to see more people lose their lives.
We know exactly how many units are needed to end homelessness in Edmonton and across Alberta. After years of advocacy, it only took a year and a few months to increase the shelter capacity in Edmonton to the level required once Premier Kenney made the commitment to address the gap. The same could happen for housing but there needs to be a plan.
That leads to the final thing we need right away: all orders of government to come together and create a housing creation plan and put the plan in action. Mayor Sohi’s motion asks for that to happen and I expect representatives from the provincial and federal governments will get in a room and work out the details right away.
Is This Performative?
I have heard some criticism that the declaration is simply performative. I disagree. I’ve already listed some important reasons why it is important to call this emergency but I will add one more: the timeliness of action. In the previous section I mentioned it took years of advocacy for the provincial government to finally address the number of shelter spaces in Edmonton. While I’m thankful that has now been addressed, it shouldn’t have taken years of sitting at a table by both Mayor Iveson and Mayor Sohi to get to this point.
During these same conversations where they shared the data that showed the need for more shelter spaces, they shared the data about the need for more 24/7 supportive housing and recovery beds and yet we don’t have a plan for the 1,400-1,700 units needed.
Those who know me know that I’m an overly positive person. I don’t like the idea of being publicly critical of others as I don’t think that generally helps you get to a good solution. But there does come a time when after years of trying to be collaborative and not seeing meaningful action combined with the significant loss of life and the negative impacts to communities that have grown in the last two years where I believe speaking up is necessary.
As shown in the links above, speaking up does not mean we just sit around pointing fingers. In fact, it means we will look for even more ways to try and help with a challenging issue. It also means that even though there has been some more public criticism, we will continue to offer to meet to work out to solve this.
I’m not perfect and there are times where people have called me out. Instead of getting defensive, I use that moment to reflect on why someone felt the need to call me out and to find a way forward. I hope this declaration allows everyone to take a step back and realize that people are dying and stopping more deaths has to be a top priority.
