This week, City Council declared an Emergency on Housing and Houselessness. This follows on the heels of eight high-risk encampment responses during the coldest period we have seen in years, a legal injunction, and just this Monday, the release of an updated Affordable Housing Strategy.

Shortly after the Special City Council meetings this week, the Province released its Navigation and Support Centre plan in response to the crisis on our streets to address the immediate needs of those facing houselessness. This centre would be a ‘one-stop shop’ for social services and support, an idea I have heard from the community, and one not too dissimilar from the emergency centres for wildfire response and the Tipinawâw at the Convention Centre during the pandemic (both operated by the City together with partners). While this is a concrete and positive step forward, we cannot ignore the importance of sustainable long-term solutions rooted in housing, and supports that centre on purpose, connection, community, and well-being.

We know that the houselessness is inextricably linked with some of the most extreme health and social outcomes (thank you Councillor Erin Rutherford for highlighting this data during the Special City Council meeting):

The average life expectancy of a homeless person in Canada is estimated to be 39 years, about HALF of the average life expectancy in Alberta.
Unhoused people in Edmonton are currently 454x more likely to die of drug poisoning than housed people.
We’re looking at a 10-year high in amputations, with a reported 127% increase between 2021 and 2022.

The Affordable Housing Strategy also highlights that currently in Edmonton, we have 46,000+ households or 1 in 8 in core housing need - of these: renters (1 in 4) and Indigenous (1 in 3) households are disproportionately represented. Through the pandemic, the houseless count has doubled to over 3,000 individuals in Edmonton. The rate of those falling into houselessness is faster than the capacity of the current system to support them.

Despite numerous advocacy calls to other orders of government, City investing its own funds into social service provision and construction of housing - a responsibility that is simply out of City’s legislative authority and resources - the road still feels long.

If this is not an emergency, I don’t know what is. This is why I voted to support the declaration of a housing and homelessness emergency, and the tangible actions and next steps of the Mayors motion. Naming this situation what it is - an emergency - shines a bright spotlight on this growing issue for other orders of Government, whose partnership we need to solve this systematic crisis, and the need to collaboratively find solutions with urgency.

Motion put forward by Mayor Sohi from the Special City Council Meeting:

That Attachment 1 be added to the January 15, 2024, Mayor's Office report MO02326.
That the City of Edmonton declare a housing and houselessness emergency.
That the Mayor, on behalf of City Council, invite the Government of Canada, Government of Alberta and Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations for a meeting to discuss collaborative solutions to the emergency, including those as identified in Attachment 1 of the January 15, 2024, Mayor's Office report M002326.
That Administration establish a task force, led by Mayor, City Manager and an appointed member of Council, consisting of community leaders with a mandate to mobilize all sectors, expedite red tape reduction related to housing and houselessness, and allocate $3.5 million from the Community Safety and Wellbeing Reserve unallocated funding to act as seed money to fund innovative solutions and attract additional sources of funding.
That Administration provide a verbal report with a list of immediate actions that Administration can take, including but not limited to options such as the provision of City-owned land to service providers able to immediately increase the number of Indigenous-led transitional spaces in Edmonton, and existing recommended actions that can be expedited.

The Affordable Housing Strategy is worth checking out as it provides some critical context to the conversations we’ve been having in the last few days, for how we got to this point today, and the ambitious goals (2,700 affordable housing and 1,400-1,700 permanent supportive housing units by 2026) that would build on the momentum of the last 4 years as we look to the future.

Critically, this strategy has woven in the Lived Experience research from September 2022, but we need to see how concretely people with lived experience are involved in decision-making and designing of solutions that impact their life. So let’s do just that. Not just in the implementation of the Affordable Housing Strategy, but also in the next steps that come with declaring a housing emergency. I want to see not only our government and institutional leaders at the table, but other leaders, informal leaders, those at the frontlines and those directly impacted by any decisions we make.

Right now, Housing and Houselessness are the single biggest issues we are grappling with as a city. There is work being done, with more to come, and it will take all of us.

Declaration of a Housing and Houselessness Emergency in Edmonton

Keren Tang

Declaration of a Housing and Houselessness Emergency in Edmonton

Recap: Transit Safety and Security Forum (Feb 2024)

Encampment Response: Where to Now?

Keren Tang