Unless you are a landlord, almost every problem in society gets better with more housing, and almost every problem gets worse with less of it. With our rapid population boom, we need a lot more housing located in central areas where more people want to live. Remember, even at full build out, Blatchford will only house 30,000 people and the West 240 only another 5-7000 which even combined, is less than one year of full population growth in Edmonton.

These projects show a create approach and I wanted to highlight them:

1.  Rideau Park - Just east of Whitemud Crossing Public Library — This rezoning allows the transition of a vacant commercial (Rona/Lowes) and overbuilt parking lot into a new apartment building. (Passed - Aug 18th, 2025)

2. Cromdale/Borden Park - 58 suites close to Stadium Station for a new Three Robins Seniors Centre: This project will allow more seniors friendly housing with home care on site.

3. Ottewell- A mixed use community hub of housing and amenities. This would take an aged church and rectory and envision an active community hub with opportunities for housing, ground-oriented community and commercial development as well as retaining church space.

4. West Jasper Place - A new four-story apartment building 125m from the new west LRT station.

This is a fantastic location, steps from a new train, and perplexingly, Clr. Cartmell was the only dissenting vote.

5. Highlands/Calder: Two new locations for bridge housing that could see a future land sale for affordable housing providers to help people leaving hospital care, rather than being discharged into homelessness. Alleviating the human suffering on our streets must be a top priority for all of us.

Bridge healing is remarkable. I attended a session about these small transition homes for people leaving heathcare and the outcomes are remarkable.

Murray Soroka, the founder of Jasper Place Wellness Centre and Bridge Healing creator Dr. Louis Francescutti have worked tirelessly to move thousands of disadvantaged Edmontonians off the streets and into housing.  His current housing model includes achievable targets, but requires multiple sectors, including Edmonton business to engage in meaningful planning, co-operation and most importantly, concrete action.

Following Murray, Bridge Healing creator Dr. Louis Francescutti, provided details about why the housing first model works, why this kind of unit is the right size and scope, and why he's already seeing results from the Bridge Healing Centre funded by City Council, reducing health care costs and preventing the "Treat'm and street'm" discharge into homelessness from Emergency rooms (https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/new-edmonton-housing-to-provide-bridge-healing-for-homeless-patients-discharged-from-er). We know that Edmonton has many more folks who arrive here for health care, and then end up on the street. I see them in my own neighbourhood.

Dr. Louis was asked about mental health issues and other folks "not ready to be housed" and he shared that for a lot of folks, stable housing can prevent psychosis, can provide a safe place to sleep and heal, and can help mitigate many of the other traumas, physical, social and otherwise that are exacerbated by the street. I know folks who told me that they turned to hard drugs because they had nowhere to safely sleep and would rather be on a stimulant to avoid being robbed or sexual assaulted or worse. Stability is a salve; instability a liability.

Multiple first-hand accounts talked about why people crave belonging and community wherever they are, and these apartments are already providing a sense of stability and community. Murray and Louis shared anecdotes about residents checking in and looking out for one another to make sure that folks are seeing their doctor, taking their medicine, and providing a "chosen family".

He highlighted a small-home, missing-middle-style small model, already in place in four locations with a few key features:

• Can fit on any city residential lot. 33, 40, or 50ft.
• Three story with 12 private units. Each unit is self contained, bathroom, bed, table, cupboards, counter fridge and cooktop.
• Common kitchen and laundry, common living room, community spaces. Fully accessible for folks with mobility challenges (which many have) with a "made in Edmonton Lift" (more affordable than conventional elevators!)
• At $150K/door or $1.8 Million built cost per apartment (land separate) they have made them very cost-efficient. For context, that's about the annual cost of keeping a person in jail for a year.
• With heat pumps, air conditioning, they are resilient for heat waves and save on energy bills.
• Depending on the acuity of the residents, help can be provided to folks, or they can live independently.
• READ MORE: Informed Building Design: https://www.jpwc.ca/team-3 

We know the model works. We just need to scale up and out.

We have the land (the city can contribute) and we have the financing (CMHC). It was suggested that the business community would work with the provincial government to provide matching funding to get these units up and running.

I believe it was shared that there are approximately 3000 unhoused who can't afford more than $500 in rent a month. There are approximately 10,000 who can't afford more than $1100 a month.

Loneliness kills. We need treatment not trauma.

Housing is healthcare.

One of the books I gift most often is "Homelessness is a Housing Problem" which I've written about prior (www.michaeljanz.ca/housing) We know that "higher rents leads to more tents" and that action is needed across the housing spectrum to provide choices and dramatically increase supply. As far as a model that works with the highest needs individual and keeps them off the street? This is a very good one.