Action Plan on Homelessness
On October 1, Former Premier Kenney and Minister Jason Luan announced the Action Plan on Homelessness. This plan includes targeted funding to support the most vulnerable in our community and shows strong alignment with what Mayor and Council have been asking for.
The plan will be focused on five key service delivery changes.
Supporting shelters to adopt a housing-focused approach
Supporting shelters to adopt a recovery-oriented approach
Redeveloping a new provincial Homelessness Management Information System
Focusing on results
Testing and developing new approaches
So what does this mean for our city? Let me break it down for you.
$5 million during 2022-2023 to create up to 450 temporary shelter spaces in Edmonton;
Increased funding for the Hope Mission to provide 24/7 shelter spaces;
A Service Hub Model pilot in both Edmonton and Calgary which incorporates:
recovery-oriented services,
housing-focused shelter services;
primary health services.
$12 million in 2022-2023 to balance funding levels between Calgary and Edmonton
Additionally, the province is moving forward with the implementation of the Mental Health and Addictions Advisory Council recommendations with immediate recovery-oriented responses to the drug poisoning crisis pressures in Edmonton and Calgary — with $54 million of operating and $70 million of capital investments over two years.
The funding will be distributed in the following ways:
Establish an adult Recovery Community in the Edmonton area:
Build a 75-bed, co-ed, long-term treatment facility. This should be operational by next year.
Increase medical detox spaces:
Establish a hybrid health and police operated facility in downtown:
Patients would be assessed onsite and an urgent treatment plan put in place
Offer immediate access to opioid treatment through Virtual Opioid Dependency Program (VODP) and/or warm hand-off or medical detox or addiction treatment services.
Expand harm reduction/recovery outreach teams in downtown and
Chinatown areas:
Working with Edmonton Police Services, Alberta Health Services (AHS) and community service providers, funding will be used to increase the capacity of teams to provide direct outreach to vulnerable people to offer support, encourage access to overdose prevention and other health services and connect to recovery resources.
Why does this matter? Let me give you an example of the importance of 24/7 supportive housing.
Ambrose Place is a 24/7 supportive housing development in Boyle McCauley. Ambrose Place uses a housing first approach to provide housing and support services within a culturally sensitive environment to homeless Indigenous individuals and couples who have not been successfully housed in existing facilities.
Prior to living in Ambrose Place, many of the residents were homeless and would regularly interact with police and our health care system. There was an analysis completed that compared the interactions for the two years before moving into Ambrose Place and the two years after moving in. The numbers were shocking.
The analysis showed that overall interactions with police dropped 46%. Most of the interactions (78%) that would happen between residents and police were related to non-criminal violations. After moving into Ambrose Place, those non-criminal interactions dropped by 69% as the supports provided on site were able to address various interactions. The net financial impact was a savings of $480,000 per year.
Since we are focusing on the province’s role in this, I think it’s important to note the savings to our health care system. When comparing the health utilization rates of residents prior to moving to Ambrose Place, utilization decreased in the following ways:
Overall emergency department visits decreased 61% from 8.66 to 3.39 visits per resident per year.
The overall rate of inpatient (hospital) days decreased by 65% from 39.58 to 13.78 inpatient days per person per year.
The overall rate of Emergency Medical Services events decreased by 38% from 5.06 to 3.13 events per resident per year.
The savings in inpatient and emergency department costs amounted to $10,441 per resident per year, with a corresponding 39% overall reduction in utilization of those services.
Even though there is a larger operating cost for these units, the provincial government still saves money every year versus the alternative of continuing to leave our neighbours on the street.
Funding these resources is a win/win/win for The City of Edmonton, the Province of Alberta and the vulnerable populations we both serve.
We are very thankful for this support from the government. Some of the proposed funding however is not permanent stable funding and instead will be simply a stop gap targeted to the winter response, Myself and the rest of Council will continue to advocate for more permanent sustainable funding and work collaboratively with the province on housing, mental health and addictions support as I firmly believe that with the right supports and services we can end homelessnesss in our city.
